A Thief's Pride
by PTsvengeance
Summary: A fox from Nick's past has reemerged bringing grave news. A rival gang to Mr Big is on the hunt for Nick and Judy because of their association with the Big family. Tension between him and Judy begins to take its toll on their relationship as he continues to work with a thief in order to preserve this new life he made for himself.
1. Called Upon

So before I start this off I want you all to know that DiaH20, has suffered through a lot, editing this story for me. Fixing the abundance of mistakes I made. So feel free to leave thanks to him for making this story more bearable to read. As of now though, he hasn't had enough time to fix the next couple chapters but those will be updated soon enough. With that said, enjoy the story.

Called Upon

Chapter 1

The shadows of the nearby buildings stretched across the frozen landscape of a Tundratown market. A red fox whose russet fur resembled a ruddy brown stood at the side of the Munchy Mart, waiting for it to open. Rocking side to side, shifting his weight from one paw to another, he would scratch at the surface of ice below him. Etching claw marks into it out of pure boredom.

The sun was coming up and he wanted to replace his lenses with ones more suited for direct sunlight. He dug into the pockets of his jacket, the leather creaking in protest as it was forced to move after staying stagnant in the freezing temperatures for so long. Pulling his sunglasses off his muzzle, exposing his hazel eyes, he started the process of switching his lenses, when an awaited voice called to him:

"Hey Stavanger!"

The fox looked up to see Samuel Manchas, a slender jaguar in a white and blue uniform to match the market he was currently opening. "Why don't you come inside before you become a foxicle." He gave the jaguar an unsure smile to play along with his sarcastic response: "You sure that's okay? You don't officially open for another three minutes, you could get in trouble."

The big cat finished unlocking the doors and looked back to the fox: "I think it would be worse if I had frozen fox statue scaring everyone away."

With the new lenses in, Stavanger placed his sunglasses on his forehead and began to walk to the shop entrance. "Oh come on Sam, I'm gorgeous."

Sam chuckled. "Please, you have no sense of fashion." The panthera continued as he offered entry through the door he was holding open. "You always wear that same jacket every time I see you. Makes me wonder if you own anything else." The vulpine walked into the warmer climate of the grocery store, a crooked smirk splayed across his muzzle. "I only ever see you in that awful outfit."

The cat was quick to shoot back: "Because you only ever see me when I'm here at work." Stavanger just as quickly retaliated: "Well, you only ever see me in the cold of Tundratown, hence the jacket, but we should really change that."

Samuel gestured towards his uniform and the inside of the store, which was similarly colored and decorated as the uniform of its employee. "I can't just up change everything about this place on a whim. Plus, what's so bad about it anyways?" Stavanger's face straightened, then released a bit of a chuckle himself. "No, not that: We should really hang out sometime."

The jaguar slowed his walk to stop near a cash register, his smile faded. "Not sure when I will have the time, I still have to devote all my time to work." Stavanger knew the reason behind it. Taking a more sincere approach, he asked: "Yeah, how is Renato anyways?" As he asked, Stavanger thought back to when he heard about Samuel's brother having a rough week. From being attacked by a savage mammal to being infected with the night howler toxin later that week as well. 

A sigh started the jaguars next sentence: "Well, the hospital won't let him go before they know for sure that this experimental treatment is foolproof. With his medical bills and the fact that he has been out of work, I have been doing what I can to keep both our finances afloat."

The fox just stood in awe of what it must be like to be in a situation like that."At least he is getting better right?"  
A remnant of a smile came back to the felines face. "Yeah, he is. Getting a little stir crazy in the hospital though. Anyway, enough about that, I am sure you have things to do and I still have to get this place ready for when an actual customer comes in."

Stavanger scoffed in a playful act of being appalled. "And here I thought I was a regular here, but no, I am not even a customer."

The jaguar rolled his eyes and watched as the smaller predator walked deeper into the store. Sam shouted after the still complaining fox: "You're so melodramatic!"

Browsing at the selection presented in the store, he passed by a display with plastic sunglasses for youngsters that reminded him of the ones that were perched on his head. His thoughts drifted to the mischief he got into to get his.

-

It was a sunny day at the beach of Sahara square, a light breeze to remind everyone how hot the sun would feel without its cool touch. Looking up at the buildings on the boardwalk, he could see his squirrel counterpart getting into position, wearing something that resembled a wrestlers outfit with the sides cut out. Stavanger could never hold back his smile when he would see the rodent in his ridiculous outfit, but he still knew of its importance, so he respected it. As this wasn't just a squirrel, the patagium going from his wrists to his ankles made him a 'flying' squirrel. The outfit made sure that no clothes would disrupt his flight.

Once Stavanger contained himself, he moved under where Nathan had set up and waited for the tap of a hook device that Nathan would lower to him. He flinched when the wind slapped it against his muzzle unexpectedly. Grabbing the hook, he scratched at the itch caused by the hook, making it look like a natural movement. This also gave Nathan enough time to keep feeding more of the near invisible line down, so Stavanger could let his paw fall to his side again. Stavanger collected more and more of the strand, while he eyed his target.

A portable stand promoting a well-known brand of sunglasses ran by a lone javelina. The slack needed to walk that distance was in paw, so he started walking to the stand mumbling "Too easy" to himself. The boardwalk was relatively empty as it was too early on a weekday for mammals to be showing up in masses. The pig, having very little to keep himself occupied, noticed the fox walking to the desk and immediately began to greet the would-be customer.  
"Hello, it's a beautiful day out." Stavanger approached the kiosk and simply replied with: "That, it is."

Clasping his hooves, the employee was quick to start his sales pitch: "Maybe I can hook you up with something to shade your vulpine eyes from this sun?"

"Yeah, that would be nice. Could I see a couple of these?" He pointed to a display case on the counter, full of a variety of the brands' new releases.

The suina pulled out a few pairs of sunglasses that would be the closest fit to a fox, splaying them out on the table. Stavanger tried a couple pairs on, looking at himself in the nearby mirror for dramatic effect. He then asked: "Do you have any others that might fit?"

Taking a moment to ponder over his inventory, the salesmammal shuffled through boxes that were under the counter. Coming back up empty-handed, he moved over to one of the larger sized stands. "So far, I don't see any, but if I don't have any in here, you can check our store at..." Stavanger wasn't really paying the pigs words any attention, rather focusing on affixing the hook to the bridge of the sunglasses he was wearing, placing them back on the table behind a cup to keep it from sliding off the table due to the low breeze pulling on the line.

"Well, that's fine, these are a bit out of my price range anyway," Stavanger said to get the javelina's attention and to put an end to the conversation. Or so he thought, as the peppy pig wasn't finished trying what he could to get his stock sold.

"Oh, we are out here to promote our special offer..." And again his words fell on deaf ears as Stavanger placed a paw against his back and leaned on the counter to convince the joyous javelina that he was still listening with interest. Holding this pose, waiting for what's to come next, he plotted his course of action for what was soon to happen.

Nathan saw Stavanger placing his paws behind his back and sprang into action. Getting a running start, the rodent leapt from the building, switching the line to his hind paws as he fell. Expanding his body to catch the wind, he began to glide away with the sunglasses in tow. Stavanger reacted naturally, when the cup was sent flying as the sunglasses took off. The kiosk owner stood dumbfounded at seeing his glasses skip across the boardwalk before finally giving chase. Once he felt sure of himself, Stavanger reacted with what speed he had, moving to the other side of the table. Snatching what he could, he swiftly moved to the still unlocked counters, grabbing box after box and stuffing them in any pocket he could. Feeling confident, his greed overwhelmed him, now holding what he could in his arms once his pockets wouldn't accept any more and he took off. Before he rounded a corner to disappear from sight, he looked to see how his partner had fared.

-

Stavanger's memory came to a crashing halt when a massive surge of pain shot through his tail. In a wild frenzy, he scrambled, knocking over items on the shelves with a yelp of pain. Resting his weight on a shelf, he hunched over and grabbed his tail, seething in pain. He hissed on the inhales and growled on his exhales.

He examined his tail, but the shouts and pleads of a caribou brought his attention to her. He figured out that it was her shopping cart that had caused the pain. Focusing on her, he just started to make out what she was saying. "It's a savage!"

There he was, hunched over, baring his teeth while the rangifer panicked about a savage animal. Switching to a more defensive, posture Stavanger was worried about being trampled by the long-legged mammal, putting his paws out in front of himself in an attempt to defuse the situation.

A jaguar came barreling around the corner into the aisle, where all the commotion about a savage animal in his store was coming from. This didn't help at all, because in her fit, the doe now saw a second predator bounding her way. Doing the only thing that she could think of, she pushed off her cart and bolted.

"What's going on here!?" Sam half yelled when he slowed to not overshoot his friend, whilst keeping forward momentum to be able to continue after the caribou. Stavanger spat back: "She thinks I'm savage, because I yelped when she ran over my tail." The panthera shook his head as he could see this was going to be one of those kind of days. "Okay, could you just go check out and let me deal with this?" Feeling guilty for the trouble he caused his friend, he did as instructed. "Sorry about that. Let me know when you get some free time and I'll make it up to you." "Sure thing," Sam replied while backpedaling, smiling at the fox to reassure him that there were no hard feelings.

After paying at one of the registers that had a clerk ready, he stepped back out into the world. Examining Munchy Mart's new design on the plastic bag, he caught a glimpse of something under the snowdrift of a pillar. It was a poster that drifted in the wind, only to be encased in its now icy tomb.

A simple swipe of the paw revealed its image. Judy Hopps, proud as ever in a blue uniform, was all he needed to see on it before he lost interest. It was the bunny's fault as to why mammals are in a state of mass hysteria and would jump to conclusions like the caribou did inside. Even after the famed 'Nighthowler' case was closed and the truth came out, mammals still held on to the fear, as well as the anger. Using it all as a catalyst to feed the rage, blaming predators with whatever they could, claiming savagery or something else that would victimize themselves to earn an advantage.

Continuing from that disappointing find, he found something else that sullied his mood in the parking lot. A formidable limousine with an all too familiar polar bear standing in wait next to it. Knowing what that combination normally entailed, Stavanger made a beeline to the left, avoiding any confrontation.

That hadn't gone as smooth as he thought it would, when another bear stood in his way, gesturing to the car. Slumping in defeat, Stavanger sighed while trudging in the direction of the vehicle. It was a rare thing to see this particular vehicle on the road and it was never particularly good for the mammal it would be on the prowl for.

The rear door was opened by the solemn looking polar bear, allowing Stavanger to hesitantly clamber in. He was followed by the overwhelming mass of the ursus known as Kevin. The door on the side opened and the car shook once again as the second polar bear known by the name of Raymond slid into the seat, pushing the much smaller predator back to the middle of the bench seat.

With precision timing, the car drove off as the last door was shut. An uncomfortable silence fell in the limo that put Stavanger on edge. Looking across him made him feel more troubled. A massive grizzled Koslov with none other than Mr. Big in his chair atop his bodyguards extensive paws. Unable to cope with the anxiety anymore, Stavanger finally spoke up.

"Well, it looks like everything's going smoothly still, right?" Adding the hint of a question to probe at the reason for this very unexpected visit from the top mammal. A crack developed in the stone face of the arctic shrew, when just an eyebrow was raised. Nothing followed and again the stagnant sound of nothing was in the air.

Clearing his throat, he attempted to clear the eerie silence again. "So, to what do I owe this luxurious ride in your presence?" Bumps and creaks of the limo were the only responses.

Until finally, something was said: "Why haven't you been returning my calls?" The shrews words were cold and to the point. Stavanger replied with a half-truth to stretch out what sympathy he could possibly get. "Sorry if I inconvenienced you in any way. My phone's been having issues and because the money for it..." He was cut off with a sigh, accompanied by a simple wave of a paw. "I don't care about your excuses. What I care about, is your purpose to me." Unbeknownst to where this broad subject would lead, Stavanger had to ask: "So what is it you want me to do now?"

Mr. Big's steely eyed glance showed he had struck a nerve. "First of all, this is about your failure of the last task I gave you."

Stavanger's stomach churned, his mind raced with anything he could have done wrong. This deep fearful thinking reflected itself on his facial features. The rodent filled in the blanks for him. "I told Nick to never come around here again and I told you to ensure this happened. It was a simple task."

Anxiety spiked, when he heard the mention of his failure from the mob boss that sought him out personally. Adding that he had his go-to bears accompanying him made it clear that nothing good was going to come out of this situation. Stavanger only hoped he would get out of the car unscathed.

"It doesn't matter," Mr. Big continued. "That is not the issue that I am here for."

That sent chills down his spine. What could be bad enough that Mr. Big would brush off failure like it's nothing? His heart rate sped up, thinking of scenarios of what his demise would be. Searching for any possible way to escape, but each direction he would go, would be right to one of Mr. Big's formidable escorts.

He was brought back into the conversation, when the small predator explained the situation. "What I am here for is, because I have gotten word that a group of mammals have targeted the godmother of my granddaughter. You may know her as 'Officer Judy Hopps'." Mentioning the name gave Stavanger emotions of annoyance and dread of what may follow the shrew's next words. "The reason she is in danger is due to her relation to my family, but also because of your old pal Wilde. Knowledge of Wilde becoming her partner in the ZPD is spreading. Unfortunately, it is believed that Nick is still an associate of mine. It's believed that they are both inside mammals for me, which is why they are being targeted. Nick knows too much about everyone and Judy is family, making the hit a bonus if they get her as well."

Hearing the mention of Nick overwhelmed his anger for the bunny officer. Excited and hopeful of seeing Nick again, he pushed the conversation to the point. "So what do I have to do?" Mr. Big rested his head on a clenched paw. "Because everyone thinks Nick is still with us, let's make these accusations true. Convince him to once again work for us, tell him I will forgive his past transgression. All the while you will be serving as their personal bodyguard to ensure no one makes a move on them."

This was the first time Stavanger was given a task like this, so he wanted to clarify what was said. "So you want me to guard them? I don't really have experience with this. Sure, I was an enforcer for the small buildings that these guys couldn't get into," he said while gesturing to the polar bears, "but I am a mammal who acquires things for you."

The boss nodded his head, agreeing with what was said, but explained to the fox why this had to happen. "Because of these Luminous Crown guys taking our docks, we have our paws full. That's why you will go. You really just need to make your presence known, so they know not to mess with Nick or Judy. However, since you've brought up your true purpose to me, then I have something else for you. When this misguided group of mammals decided to take control of my docks, they interrupted one of my shipments of lethal weapons. I need you to get replacements as soon as you can. We need to have a more aggressive presence, now that we have competition."

Stavanger quickly replied with "On it", then leaned forward to ask more about his first task. "So who am I guarding them from?"

Mr. Big's scowl grew deeper when he said: "Those Luminous Crown fucks! The only mammals stupid enough to cross me."

Sinking in his seat, Stavanger didn't want to hear that. He hasn't directly faced anyone from L.C., but he heard rumors of how they were a very vengeful group of mammals, who enjoyed collateral damage. That must be the reason why both Nick and Judy were targeted. Knowing he wouldn't last long against them, he pressed his luck to ask: "Okay, so, because you gave me two jobs could I get..."

Stavanger was cut off: "Before you ask, I can't give you any backing for this. I told you that we are stretched thin." He looked between the bears in the vehicle, asking them: "I said that right? I told him?" The tension in the limo increased, baring down on the fox. "I said we have our paws full on our end. You are resourceful: figure it out!"

Reaching for anything, Stavanger asked one last question. "Well, could you at least drop me off at the Crevasse Street Station?"

Mr. Big released a raspy hum, followed by: "No, here will do fine."

Koslov raised a paw and pressed a button on a console next to him, telling the driver to stop. Sliding to a stop on the icy road, the rear door opened and a fox was pulled out by his scruff. Plopping down on the ground, some of the contents of his shopping bag fell in the slush along the side of the road. Again, once the door was shut, the limo would take off, leaving a fox to retrieve his belongings from the muck behind. All eyes watched him when he started off, all making opinions of his situation to one another.

He was pissed, but Mr. Big needed to be firm to maintain his control and Stavanger understood that. He just wished it wouldn't end with him being embarrassed like this. Or with such a long walk ahead of him. At least the walk would give him time to think about his future endeavours.

Getting in touch with Nick again was an exciting concept for him. Memories of the elder fox flashed through his mind. All the things he wanted to tell Nick about gave him an actual feeling of excitement.

Stavanger rounded a corner and walked in the direction of the city center. He liked this area, because it was an older part of town, which was maintained in a way to keep that appearance. Thoughts of Nick were replaced with how he was going to deal with the bunny and quickly got worse, when his thoughts grew to the more troubling issue. How was he going to get actual guns? Plus, what is it that Mr. Big wanted specifically? The crime lord was not one to leave such decisions to mammals like Stavanger.

Did he want such tools that were discrete or intimidating? Did he want point or area effects, what about sizes? Surely, the shrew knew Stavanger couldn't carry weapons sized for the bears he likes to surround himself with.

Walking into the open area exposed him to the warmth of the sun. Feeling its relief, Stavanger decided to soak up its rays on a bench in the city center of Tundratown. He picked a bench that was cleared of snow near a stand, where he could stay and ponder over his new troubles.

Taking a seat on the large bench, he rummaged through his grocery bag for something to quell his peckish feeling. Although, there was something in the bag that he hadn't placed in there. Pulling out the envelope, he flipped it over to see Mr. Big's signature 'B' stamped on the center.

Puzzled how that could have made it in his bag, he opened the envelope. Peeking inside, all that could be seen was cash and a folded paper. In a rush to get somewhere secluded to further inspect this, he bounded off the bench. Placing the mysterious letter back in his bag as he trotted past the small tourist stand, he was halted by a shout. "Hey! You going to pay for that!?"

Curious as to who was involved with this, he looked back at the shop to a Dall sheep looking right back at him. Stavanger inquisitively turned and pointed at his own chest. Glancing over the stand, he saw that at the end, near where he was sitting, was a postcard carousel. Instantly, he knew that the sheep was confusing Stavanger's mysterious letter for one of the postcards. "Yes, you! You think I am blind!?" The ram then stood up. "You better give that back if you know what's good for you."

Stavanger tried to think of a way to explain the situation, but couldn't, without exposing it being full of money from a well-known crime boss. Not taking any risks of _that_ getting out, he gripped his bag a little tighter and shifted it somewhat behind himself. "I can assure you that you don't sell any cards like this one."

Anger welled up inside the shopkeep when the fox refused to comply. "So you think you predators can just bully us in the open now, huh?! You think I won't stand up for what's mine?!"

Stavanger began to take a defensive posture, when his accuser started to show aggression. "Okay for one, you're already standing up and two, you really think that, of all things, I would want to take a postcard? Your shitty cards are not that special."

The sheep's breaths got deeper and faster, matching Stavanger's pose with one of his own. "Oh ha ha, you're real clever. Only proving the fact that you preds think you can be reckless and wild! Running around, doing whatever you want, unchecked and unchallenged. That's okay though, I will teach you that the rest of us are not going to take your shit anymore!"

Holding his ground and watching the ram approach, Stavanger widened his stance and lowered his center of gravity, ready to react. Stavanger spoke softly to himself: "Here we go again." His opponent widened his stride, increasing his pace towards the fox. Stavanger thought of a way to escape, by causing the ram to lose its balance on the ice and fall. The delay allowed one of his ears to catch the sound of shouts behind him.

Flicking his ear back, he heard the pitter patter of paws rushing up. Sensing an ambush, Stavanger crouched down lower and tucked the shopping bag into his side. A fight couldn't be avoided, but maybe he could get a couple hits in to ensure an escape. All he knew was that he didn't want to risk losing his bag. Taking the opportunity to pounce, Stavanger lunged forward on the attack, but it was too late.

What little momentum he had was halted by a firm grip on his arm and the opposing shoulder. He took a quick glance at what gripped his arm, but not fast enough to miss the blur of blue and grey zipping past him.

The paw on his arm belonged to a fellow canid, he knew that. Spinning around quickly, to engage the ambusher before the ram's impact, he could make out that a red fox was holding him. In awe of an almost betrayal like feeling, he paused, paw balled up ready to strike. The clothing resembled a uniform, in fact the uniform represented the ZPD. Scanning the features of this familiar figure, he didn't have to read the nameplate to know who it was, but the odds of this actually happening with this perfect timing were so slim, he still had to ask. "Nick?"


	2. Cold Places and Familiar Faces

Chapter 2

Cold Places and Familiar Faces

Riding passenger Nick Wilde was admiring himself in the reflection of the police cruisers side mirror. His uniform wasn't as presentable as other officers but he still pulled the look off nicely, and he knew it.

"You have been quiet for a while, something on your mind slick?" Came from the driver of the vehicle. Nick broke his spell over himself to look at his partner in the driver seat. Judy Hopps was giving the fox a brief glance before looking back at the road. Nick responded turning back to the enticing view in the mirror "Yeah I guess I am a little distracted today."

Judy continued the conversation keeping her eyes fixed on the road. "Distracted by what?"

Nick exhaled deeply as he spoke "By this one fox." Now resting his muzzle in a paw that was supported by the door. He looked out the corner of his eye to catch her reaction.

It didn't disappoint when she wore a quizzical expression, pondering what he had said. "I... You never told me you had your eye on someone. When did this happen?"

Smiling as he said it "Fairly recently" knowing she had fallen for the bait.

Her mind played back all the encounters he had with other mammals while with her but didn't remember many foxes. But then again, she still didn't know as much about her new partner as she would like to admit. True they have known each other for almost a year now. But that couldn't be used to gage how well they knew each other as Nick was always reluctant to talk about himself. Plus the gap of time they spent away from each other during the Nighthowler case and when Nick attended the police academy.

"So have I met this fox before?" Judy asked

Slightly nodding his head "Yeah you have." Is all Nick said back keeping up his little game.

Judy still couldn't figure it out and it began to annoy her. But she also had something else fueling this emotion, she understood what it was but couldn't comprehend why. "Okay, who is she? What is she like?"

"Well" Nick started while tilting his head looking across the cruiser at Judy. "He is of a different walk of life then me, and his eyes send shivers down my spine. I wouldn't be able to live without this mammal."

Judy was stunned at the mention of a male. But she didn't know anything about his love life, she not only assumed he had a taste for vixens but that he was single as well. Getting that narrowed down she only knew one male fox Nick would often spend time with, that being Finnick.

Hesitating to guess she asked "So... Is it, Finnick?" Looking at him with bewilderment in her eyes.

Nick chuckled and returned to his resting position that offered the view of the mirror replying in a lazy tone "No"

She looked over here partner noticing he was staring at the side view mirror. This didn't make since because from his position it would only show himself. She now saw through his facade, letting out a huff shaking her head she returned her eyes to the road. "Really?"

A devious smile crept onto his muzzle when he looked back at her. Snickering a playful "what?"

"Just let me know when you are done ogling yourself over there." Judy said with a smile returning to her face. Nick once again looked over to her when he spoke "You know I make this look good."

In her mind she agreed that he did in fact look phenomenal in uniform. But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. So she just rolled her eyes "whatever you say catsanova."

Adjusting his tie for no apparent reason other than to continue the charade. "You can't deny it fluff, sooner or later you will succumb to my charm."

Judy hummed to accompany her smug face she shot at him "we'll see." Satisfied with that Nick returned his gaze to the road ahead.

Powdery snow glazed the buildings, glistening under the sun's light. As they started to drive in the more dense part of Tundratown giving Nick a chance to show Judy around and tell her the ins and outs of this part of town. "So once we take this next right that corner has a nice little game shop in it. I remember you telling me about the abundance of board games and card decks that scattered your massive burrows back home. So maybe sometime we can stop in and pick up a couple things to pass the time."

Passing by the corner store she took a couple glances at it. "Well it looks promising, and it has been a while since the last time someone got a stomping from me." She gripped the steering wheel tighter and had a look of determination to match her boasting.

"Yeah, in what?" He asked expecting her to say a handful of games.

"Anything" she said confidently.

"He he, okay carrots, challenge accepted." Looking ahead Judy could see another vehicle on the side of the road with its four way flashers on. "Ready to help some mammals first?" Judy asked with her usual enthusiasm.

Nick looked at his partner "something about making the world a better place?" She beamed a "Yep!" back at him.

The patrol car came up behind the stranded car. Nick stepped out while Judy called up their situation on the radio. The outside felt frigid compared to the heated interior of the cruiser.

A wombat came around the side of her car and greeted the officer "Sorry to cause any trouble but everything is fine. We just have a flat tire."

Nick inquired about the other mammals after seeing no one else in or around the car "We?" The mammal pointed down the street "My husband took our son to go find something to lift the car off the tire."

Judy came up joining her partner in the conversation "We have a jack!"

Looking back at her car the wombat felt embarrassed about her situation. "It's fine, we need to get one of our own anyway."

Turning back to the cruiser Nick waved his paw in the air "Well we can help you now to at least get you back on the road."

The stranded mammal relaxed clasping her paws relieved she was getting the assistance. "Thank you so much."

Judy had a look of tenderness watching the fox walk back to the cruiser to get the jack out of the back. "It's what we do here in the ZPD ma'am." saying her favorite self made motto to the civilian.

The wombat pulled out her phone responding to the officer's generosity. "Either way it is much appreciated. Do you mind if I call my husband?" Turning back to the mammal Judy reassured her "Yeah that's fine, we'll get working on this and have you out of here in a jiffy."  
Surprise flashed on her face "oh no no no no, that's not necessary! My husband shouldn't be far."

Picking up the tire iron left on the sidewalk Judy brushed off the snow that stuck to it when she explained. "No it's fine, this is why we are here, to help." Holding her phone between both paws she shyly asked "Are you sure?"

Nick came back around from the back of the cruiser with a hand held jack in his paws. "Absolutely." He commented. The strain of holding the device capable of lifting all the ZPDs cruisers shown through his voice.

Tapping on her phone to make a call she explained "Okay great. Again thank you so much. I will let my husband know to come back."

Nick started to work on getting the tire off once he collected all the necessary tools to do so. Judy wanted to help but fell into a trance when he started to roll up his sleeves. She wouldn't suspect that Nick would have done this so willingly before he was an officer. But this kindness wasn't formed overnight. He was a caring mammal, but would always hide behind a facade. Maybe as a way to distance himself from the ones he scammed?

"Hey Carrots could you hold these?" Judy was pulled from her thoughts by Nick holding out one of the car's lug nuts. "Oh yeah, right." She stepped over to grab it from his paw.

She felt bad watching him do most the work. Growing up being the main workforce on the farm she learned her way around machinery and this was no different. He just got to it first and it had no room for a second pair of helping paws.

The rabbits ears swung in the direction of a shout herd in the distance. "What was that?" Nick asked standing up. Judy placed the lugs in her hand on the spare tire "By the sound of it nothing good." Looking back at the wombat Judy apologized "Sorry about this ma'am, we'll be right back to finish up here."

Both officers started off in a jog down the street before a reply could be made. Nick could only pick up the words in the shouting match that had emphasis in them. Wild being one of those words. A single laugh escaped his grinning muzzle from an idea of what to say about his name being shouted came to mind.

But Judy prevented it going any further. "Not now Nick, this is serious." Knowing she could hear what was going on better than he could he didn't question her judgment of the gravity of the situation.  
Rounding the corner they came to a town square. On the far side a Ram is seen showing aggression approaching a just as hostile looking fox. Watching the rams speed increase made it obvious that action was needed now.

"Nick we need to get in there!" Both officers broke out into a sprint, Nick veering towards the other vulpine "I got the fox." Judy agreed and steered herself to intercept the ram. "Stop!" She shouted in hopes to defuse the situation but it was to no avail.

Closing the gap they both decided how they were going to terminate the hostility.

Nick came up behind the fox just before it sprung into action grabbing its arm and shoulder to hold it in place.

Judy bound into the air in a swift leap in front of the charging ram. Not showing any signs of slowing down Judy decided on a more offensive means of stopping it. She landed in a squat using her powerful legs as springs jetting up, both fists forward aimed at the dall sheep's chest. Connecting with her target her strike forced him off his hooves and on the ground with a forced huff of air.

Nick's grip on the fox was firm suspecting he was going to have to stop it from leaping forward but it didn't. The slightly taller fox spun around releasing his shoulder from Nick's grasp. Even with the training received in the academy Nick still flinched at this motion closing his eyes.

Reopening his eyes he saw a red fox whose fur was darker than his own holding a fist pulled back motionless. Nick looked over the fox to figure out why he was still.

This fox looked familiar but the sunglasses obstructed his view of the eyes not allowing Nick to know for sure. "Nick?" The mysterious fox spoke his name. Now catching the scent this fox's identity was narrowed just enough "Stav?" he questioned aloud.

The rigid form of his fellow fox fell and a warm expression came over his face. Nick loosened his grip as the opposing fox spoke "No way, is this real? Nick you, you're really a cop now? It's true?"

Releasing his grip Nick leaned over to look over Stavanger's shoulder at his partner and the ram. "Sure is, now I see you are still getting into trouble."

Remembering the situation he was just in Stavanger hastily looked back for the expected impact of the ram that never came. His surprise continued to peak up observing what was behind him. The horned sheep on the ground gasping for air after the impact it had endured. Another officer looming over it, this officer's uniform was different. Very distinguishable when it's tight layers were wrapped around a grey bunny with black tipped ears.

Grateful for what she did for him, it wasn't enough to chase away the scowl formed when he realized it was her. Stavanger turned back to Nick "No, this time it isn't me."

Crossing his arms Nick smiled in disbelief. "Okay, so you care to explain what happened here?"

Stavanger looked around at all the curious onlookers. "Well..." Pointing a thumb behind him he explained "This guy wants to accuse me of taking something from his little tourist stand." Nick raised his eyebrows and tilted his head "And did you?" Pushing his arms out from his side Stavanger answered "No, why would I want anything from a souvenir stand?" Nick raised a paw to calm his counterpart "Hey, I am just doing my job trying to figure out what happened here." Knowing Nick was being facetious Stavanger groaned rolling his eyes. "Whatever, anyways how have you been? I haven't seen you around in a while."

Before Nick could answer the ram raised his voice in discontent. "Really!? You're going... to let another... FOX... talk to him?" Both foxes looked over at the shop owner on one knee now.

Judy with her notepad jotting down notes was now still. Only her eyes shifted back and forth between the pair of foxes and the ram. Flipping her notepad shut resting it on her hip she pointed her pin at him "What's the issue with that?" Anger rising up, the dall sheep was able to take full breaths again "He is obviously going to help... help out his own kind."

Judy looked back at Nick a little shaken from this statement. But her face turned cold looking back at the ram. "Are you questioning my partner's integrity?" Realizing his mistake the ram tried to backpedal out of the bunnies gaze. "Well, I mean. He is a fox after all." Judy's face deadpanned. "I am going to pretend I didn't hear that. Now let's try this again, what did he take from you?"

Stavanger knew what was coming so while the shopkeeper told the officers what happened in his perspective Stavanger opened his Munchy Mart shopping bag. "Look, all I have in here is food. Even if he sold food I have my receipt for what I have." Nick leaned over to look in the bag. Pulling it open further with one digit of his paw he said "Well this sure doesn't look eatable."

Nick reached in for the envelope, but Stavanger collapsed his paws together trapping Nicks paw in the bag.

Stavanger spoke through his teeth with a hushed voice. "Come on Nick, please. It's not one of his." Suspicion crossed Nicks features with his paw trapped. "Then you have nothing to worry about."

Seeing no way out of this Stavanger gave in, opening the bag. Nick pulled the envelope from the bag, flipping it over to inspect the other side he was greeted by a familiar crest of a B stamped on it. Recognising this Nicks suspicion turned to disappointment. Turning back to his partner and the shopkeep he displayed the side without the crest on it and asked "Do you carry anything in this size and color?"

The ram looked back at his shop, scanning over all the cards but nothing resembled the envelope in the officers paws. Pitifully the ram responded with "No."

Nick spun around shoving it back into the plastic bag in Stavanger's paws then victoriously said " There you have it! Case solved, now Carrots if you could finish up here I will be just over there." He vaguely gestured off in the distance. Before setting off he patted Stavanger on the shoulder coaxing him in the same direction.

Judy didn't want to argue with him in front of civilians but still didn't fully understand or agree with what he was up to. She just watched him till he turned his head to wink at her as he walked away.

They walked far enough to where the ambience surrounding them would be enough to drown out their voices to the rabbit officer.

Nick stopped to ask "Okay so what's going on here?" Shrugging his shoulders Stavanger gave an honest reply. "I really don't know. I just found out I had it then that guy thought I took it from him. Somehow Mr. Big got it in my bag this morning. Must have been when I was getting mammal handled by his muscle."

Taking this in Nick just nodded "You were with him this morning?"

"Yeah I saw him this morning and ahh-" Stavanger lifted his sunglasses up and placed them on his forehead. "-you were talked about quite a bit."

Theatrically Nick put a paw to his chest "well of course, I am simply irresistible."

"So irresistible that the Luminous Crowns wants a piece of you too."

Nick put away his theatrics "what do you mean?"

Stavanger mirrored his seriousness and explained what Mr. Big had told him about the L.C. targeting him and Judy. Also saying he was offered as a protective service courtesy of the crime boss.

Nick swiveled his head to look back at Judy. She was still talking to the doll sheep but now seemed that their conversation was on a more positive track then Nick's was now. Folding his arms Nick asked "So why does Big care?"

Stavanger looked to Judy, it looked as if she was starting to wrap up her conversation "For her, it's like I said, she is part of the family now." He then looked to Nick "For you, well he still cares about you. He just can't show it. You should know that he could have done much worse than just sending you away."

Nick didn't like how his past was now rearing its head back into the present, especially with his new career. "So what are we going to do about this?" He asked hoping the answer would be a way to prevent this and preserve his future.

Stavanger quickly glanced at Judy now finished with her conversation approaching the two foxes. He wanted to finish up as well and be on his way to better process all that happened today. "Mr. Big offered protection so here I am. Aaaaand that's about all I got because I was literally told this, this morning so I don't really have it planned out yet. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news again so you can tell her."

Judy was at Nick's side hearing this her excitement was replaced by worry. Her ears were pressed back and she looked up at Nick for some kind of a hint, but it never came. His face was locked with the other fox, a small hint of worry on it.

"Anyways I got to run. I have the same number still, you can contact me on that. You still have the same one?"

Nick drew a deep breath "yeah" is all he could manage with his mind firing on all cylinders.

"Sorry about the circumstances but hey-" Stavanger slid his sunglasses back down to his muzzle. "-this is going to be like the good old days, I'm excited."

Both foxes moods seemed to have switched right around, Nick holding his usual half lid smile. "Ha, yeah me too."

Stavanger stepped backwards doing a brief wave of his free paw when he said his goodbye. "Talk to you soon and I will see you when I see you." Going in the same direction he turned around and walked away.

"Yep." Was Nick's reply. He looked down at his partner with wide eyes in a fake surprise. "Oh Carrots, there you are. You were so quiet I didn't know you were there!"

Still holding worried eyes at Nick she broke with a smirk at his obvious pretend surprise. "Hmm, but I heard you two, is everything okay?"

He cursed inwardly about her extraordinary hearing abilities. He didn't know how much of that she herd. The noise did pick up in the town square but was it enough? He didn't want to dump all of what he learned on her now. So for the moment he played dumb. "Yeah everything is fine. Just an old friend of mine."

Judy held both paws together in front of herself. "Nick" she pulled one paw to her chest and slightly reached for Nicks paw as she continued. "Someone doesn't apologize for the 'circumstances' if everything is okay."

It warmed his heart that he now had a friend that was so selfless, and willing to help him at a moment's notice. Even if she didn't know the context of what's going on she would be there for him.

Selfish as it may have been Nick wanted to delay telling her. To think of a way to soften the blow of such news news, and better prepare himself for all the follow up questions she would inevitably ask. "Okay, just not here."

She respected his answer but was determined to figure out what could be playing out in her partner's life. She wasn't going to ask directly again but rather dance around the subject to get an idea.

Both officers began their walk back to the cruiser they left behind. Judy's impatient side took the best of her when she asked "So, you know that fox?" Starting with a more rhetorical question to get the ball rolling.

Nick knew the silent walk wouldn't last, her curiosity is too great to be contained in such a small bunny. "I told you Carrots, I know everybody." Satisfied with being able to prove his quote true to her once again. "His name is Stavanger."

The duo walked around the corner to see their cruiser down the street parked on the curb. The fact that they could see the cruiser unobstructed showed that the wombat family was able to finish the job and be on there way.

"Well they were in a hurry. At least we still have our jack." Nick added when he could see the device near one of the cruisers tires.

Judy thought about what the family was in such a rush for then realized "We couldn't help them." Nick liked the change of subject but not at the expense of the bunny next to him. Trying to perk up the overzealous officer he explained "Sure we did its was our jack and us who muscled off that tire for them." Finishing what he said by flexing one arm patting it with the other.

She couldn't help the smile when she watched him do this. Her gaze held on his arms a little longer than she expected. His sleeves still rolled up exposing his toned arms. He preferred to wear his button up T-shirts so his exposed arms were nothing new. But the he was in his blue uniform that complemented his fur quite nicely. The tight rolls of the sleeves made his newly developed muscles more defined forcing their way past the restriction of the roll.

She shook her head clear of those thoughts wondering why her mind started to pay that close attention to such details of him. Delayed in her response she just agreed with what he said "Yeah." Nick unaware of what was really playing through her head attempted to cheer her up. "Don't worry Fluff with all the varying sizes of mammals in Zootopia we've fit 49.8 million mammals in this city. Let's say the average family size is five, with a few outlying species." Nick paused to clear his throat suggesting to the bunny what species we was talking about.

She mischievously smiled at him knowing full well what he was referencing. But didn't know what sparked this topic or where he was going with it so she allowed him to continue.

"So that brings us to about" Nick stopped again pretending to count on his fingers. "We'll say 9.5 million families to make it easy. Then let's say only 9 million use a car on a daily basis. I would also assume enough of these cars use four wheels to just make that the standard so that's, well... I'm not the one good at multiplying."

Reaching the cruiser he turned giving her a wink signaling her to finish the equation. She drew a deep breath shrugging her shoulders and shook her head huffing "36 million" almost like a question.

Nick picked up the jack and proceeded to put it back in the cruiser. "Okay so 36million tires on the road today? Sounds like good odds for having a second chance on helping someone else with a flat today."

They continued on their patrol with no other notable events. Just the usual banter between one another, a stop at a local coffee shop for lunch, and a lot of sitting around.

They returned to the precinct to finish the day by filling out their daily reports. The cruiser was parked in its designated spot and both officers walked in to turn in its keys.

The door they approached was to the back of the precinct so it had to be unlocked with a swipe of an officer's I.D. and a code. Because the ZPD has not yet added another access pad for smaller mammals Nick was the closest to reaching it, but still struggled with it. Because the I.D. had to be swiped slow enough for the reader to register it Judy couldn't defy gravity long enough to do this passing that task to him while she would hit the buttons. He didn't like doing this preferring their older method of letting Judy stand on his shoulders to do everything. But she put a stop to that after Nick was scolded by Chief Bogo for walking around with dusty paw prints on his uniform.

Turning in the keys to the dispatch office in the back the duo made their way to their office. It was a relatively large cubical that they would share. Stacks on stacks of reports and other miscellaneous paperwork littered the office space. Judy would do what she could to keep Nick's side presentable but she could only do so much. Especially when he would start losing track of his paperwork when she would organize his side.

It's not that Nick is a messy, unorganized mammal. He just never liked this aspect of the job and thus didn't put forth much effort in it.

Both officers took a seat in their perspective chairs. Judy controlled her oversized chair from spinning by grabbing the desk. But lost control when Nick's chair collided with hers. He grabbed her chair from his pulling them together.

Looking over the two chairs and the bunny sitting opposed to him Nick's eyes were wide full of worry. "Oh no, we appear to have had an accident." Then his face switched to his trademark hustler smile. "We should swap information."

Judy giggled at his horrible pickup line. "Is that how you get a girls number?" Nick leaned back into his chair "One of many ways." She turned her chair back to the desk and pulled it into her favored spot to work. "Maybe you can give me a demonstration of these skills of yours once we are done with our reports."

"You saying you want me to start hitting on you?" The fox didn't have to look at her to notice her straighten up realizing the trap she had put herself in.

Tapping a stack of papers on the desk to straighten them he brought up his comment again. "It's okay Carrots, everyone falls for my charm eventually." She wanted to challenge his ego looking to him with a confident smile. "We'll see about that." "That we will" Nick said agreeing with her.

Finally getting that out of their system they took a more serious attitude filling out the mountain of sheets in front of them.

Finally whittling it down enough to do today's reports Judy asked "What was the fox's name today?" Nick answered without looking up to not lose focus "Stavanger."

A few minutes past with the two diligently working when Judy broke the silence again. "No one named Stavanger is in our database." Nick paused but still didn't look up to respond. "Because he hasn't been convicted of a crime yet?" offering it more as a question. She quickly retorted ready for his answer "He isn't in anything, I can't find anything with his name on it." Nick dropped what he was doing to question her "What does that have to do with today?"

Both looked at each other Nick slightly annoyed while Judy appeared shameful for inquiring about this mystery fox. Judy explained herself "Nothing, I was just... just curious. You still haven't told me what exactly it was that he told you today."

Annoyed that she would do this behind his back he still admired the fact that she cared enough to do this. He made up his mind on telling her but not in the precinct. "Okay fine, at dinner tonight I'll tell you."

Brightening up at the promise of dinner she ask "Deal, what's the plan for dinner?" Taking a peek at the clock Nick said "we have plenty of time after work to figure that one out."

They had an early shift today and would get off just as early with hours in between work and their usual dinner time. But that didn't slow them down on trying to get out as soon as they could. Finishing up the last couple pages they needed done that they it was time to clock out.

Wishing those who they passed a good rest of the day on their way to the locker rooms to change this day was no different. Judy would be in and out and would wait for the moderately paced fox meet up with her at the front desk.

Walking up he didn't catch the conversation but they were giggling, no doubt from the latest gossip. "Hey Nick how is your day?" He was greeted by Clawhauser the friendliest cheetah on the force.

Reaching the desk Nick leaned on it to reply "Good now that I'm off work. Even better then that, I have a dinner date tonight." Finishing his sentience pointing his smile to Judy

The chubby officer's eyes followed Nick's to Judy, then rapidly switched between the two. His joyful screech penetrated the ears of those around him. "You two are just too much to handle." Nick in amazement of his fellow officers excitement stated "Wow, you know I really thought your excitement would fade at least a little after we her and I moved in together."

Clawhauser used his paws as shields on both sides of his muzzle to further muffle his whispers "But it's a date." He said with eyes full of excitement.

Judy giggled at this but had to correct him "It's not an actual date."

Nick saw his chance to add some chaos and he took it "What? I thought it was a real date." Placing the back of his paw on his forehead to complete the act. "I even told you how I felt about you and everything."

Judy watched this to her own amusement tell she saw what it was doing to the large cat. He was stunned at what he thought he was witnessing. She spoke up "Nick stop it, you're going to give him a heart attack.

He opened his eyes and resumed leaning on the desk " No, not ol' Benji here."

Clawhauser laughed at his own misunderstanding "Yeah not yet. But anyway let me know how it goes."

Nick two finger saluted his co worker while Judy pushed off the desk onto the floor. "Of course, as always." Nick caught that last part and asked her puzzled. "As always?"

She just responded with a big toothy smile.

Making their way to the front door of the precinct she looked back and waved saying her goodbye to Clawhauser. "See you tomorrow." Nick followed suit saying "Later big guy."

The big cat contently sighed "See you later." Resting his chin on his paws watching them walk out he could hear Nick ask as they got to the door "So you talk about me? What do you say?" "Nothing." Was her only reply when they walked out the door.


	3. The Meet and Greet

Chapter 3

The Meet and Greet

Stavanger stepped off the Inner Loop train onto the Herd Street Station platform. Walking for the exit his excitement started to well up inside him now that he was almost home. Once he reaches it he will finally be able to open Mr. Big's package fully to inspect its contents.

But even with this excitement he felt exhausted from the overwhelming thoughts of what all had occurred today. From Mr. Big personally seeking out the fox, to running into Nick again. He felt a rush of nostalgia wash over him at the idea of working with him again.

Exiting the station he crossed the street to continue in his path of travel knowing that this side had a coffee shop on the way home.

He didn't like the unusually high prices that came from this particular chain of shops. But he needed some kind of a pick me up. He just had to suffer walking a couple more blocks tell it would come into view.

Furthering his madness he contemplated how the envelope made its way into his bag. Was he really that distracted to allow someone as huge as a polar bear put an envelope in his bag.

Maybe it was just that easy to slip in, could that mean it would fall out just as easy? Panicking at the thought he looked into his bag to insure all the contents stayed in place.

Leveling his head he realized just how long he was lost in thought when he could already see the Snarlbucks. He could see only one mammal sitting outside suggesting it wasn't busy. Stavanger wasn't on a tight schedule or anything, he was just impatient and would often opt out of something if it meant waiting too long.

Getting closer he could see very minimal mammals inside but decided not to go in as an opportunity had presented itself to him.

The meerkat sitting outside had been called inside to pick up her order. What caught his eye was the now unattended laptop and cellphone on the table. He knew the laptop would be too noticeable so his target was the phone connected to it.

Filtering through the chairs he made his way through the maze of tables as if he was passing through. Reaching for the phone he palmed the device meant for smaller mammals with ease. Using his thumb and index finger to pluck the cable out of it he continued in his path of travel without a hitch.

Picking up speed to reach the edge of the windows to the establishment, he bolted as soon as he was out of sight of those inside. Reaching the next intersection he turned down it only slowing back to a walk once he made it to the street that ran parallel to the one he was just on.

He examined his new prize in his paw. Nothing looked wrong with it, in fact it looked new. The screen displayed a warning about loosing its connection and how it wasn't able to finish its update because of that.

The phone must have been new to the meerkat seeing as how it was updating and had no hint of personalization.

Pocketing the phone he checked his bag again insuring nothing had fallen out. Just like that his walk continued as before but now his goal was home, and with no coffee to assist the journey was going to linger.

Finally the apartment complex that he used as a reference to home came in view. It wasn't anything special it was just a red colored building that had rooms to accompany most sizes of mammals. It was in the Otterdam part of Zootopia. With its proximity to downtown Otterdam was a cheaper alternative to those who didn't want a long commute to work in the city but couldn't afford a place in downtown.

It may not have been in a competition for looks but it made up for its lack of architecture by giving its residents outstanding amenities. Such as personal garages to match the size of the rooms that occupy the building.

Making his way to the detached row of garages he pulled out his keys to the door that was next to his garage entrance. Reaching up to put the key in the doors lock that would be considered too large for the vulpine. Unlocking the door with ease he now had to jump to grab the door handle using his weight to pull it down.

The industrial door came to life with the sounds of sliding and clicking of its metal internals. Dropping to the ground Stavanger pushed his way inside closing and relocking the deadbolt behind him.

Again reaching high up he flicked the light switch on, waiting tell the fluorescent lights lights where done flickering to life before he raised his sunglasses. The room being entirely illuminated he walked to the counter on the back wall.

Apart from the door, light switch, and the garage in general the furnishings inside were more fox friendly.

It wasn't an ideal place to live. But the family that lived in the corresponding apartment to this garage had no need for it. Agreeing to let him stay there as long as he pays into what would be considered rent.

He had most things that he needed. Looking over the room from the door in a counterclockwise motion he had a couch and chairs around a coffee table that lined one wall.

Following that to the corner he had a makeshift shower that was fed water by the sink. All he had to do is turn a nozzle one way for the shower, then the other way for the sink.

Said sink was surrounded by appliances like any kitchen would. A refrigerator separated the kitchen from the rest of the counters on the other side.

On the left side of the fridge the counters were scattered with car parts and stolen items waiting to be fenced off.

With the size of the two car garage Stavanger still had plenty of room to park his prized car near the far wall. Even though it was inside he went overboard by putting a cover on it.

He was contempt with his current living condition, he had plenty of room for anything he wanted, other than a bed. He would use the couch to double as a bed saving space and money.

Stavanger placed his groceries where he saw fit. Last in the bag was the envelope. Sitting on his couch he extracted the contents onto his table. Three stacks of bucks had a brown band wrapped around them labeled Ƶ5,000 totalling in 15,000 zootopian bucks.

Focused on the letter he held it reiterated on what Mr. Big had told him but also went further into detail of what he generally wanted when it came to the guns. It also explained that the money was for Stavanger's past activities as well as an incentive to continue their partnership.

Stavanger took a deep breath of relief checking the time it was 2:42pm exhaustion hitting hard at the realization of the time. He opened a text message he just noticed he had from a recognized number. It was confirmed that Nick had sent it asking if Stavanger would be able to explain things a little better over dinner.

He responded asking when and where then stashed away his money while he waited for a response. Checking his phone again Nick had sent "6:30 Garden of Eatin sound good?" Stavanger wondered why Nick would pick that place but not enough to ask, food was food so he agreed to it.

Setting an alarm for 5:50 he started a well deserved nap. An undetermined amount of time had passed when he was woken by an unfamiliar sound from his pocket. Fetching out the newly acquired phone he could see it was receiving a call. Waiting till the call ended he turned it off placing it in his collection of other obtained objects.

Walking back he took his jacket and sunglasses off his head to get a little more comfortable. He even turned off the lights to further enjoy what was left of his nap.

Waking to his phone this time he turned off the alarm getting up to have a quick snack to tide him over tell dinner. Satisfying his peckish hunger with a grains bar he texted Nick letting him know he was on the way. He got a reply after slipping on his jacket that said "same". The sun was nearing the horizon but that is all he needed to justify having his sunglasses on.

He walked back to his nearest train station and got on the next one out.

Taking a seat he texted three individuals in his contacts list. Asking Nathan if he had any merchandise to add to the pile that he planned to be fenced off tonight.  
Then the other two numbers if they were able to make out tonight for some business.

He pushed his phone back into his pocket hoping that everyone would be available tonight. Seeing as how he is going to be spending a lot of time around the two police officers he wanted to have clean paws. It wasn't so much Nick he was worried about, even if the fox would be able to pick up on any questionable items fast being a con-mammal himself. It was the overzealous rabbit he was worried about. He didn't know her but all he knew is she was a force to be reckoned with.

Exiting it at Acacia Street station. Walking the rest of the way he approached where his phone's GPS was guiding him and he came to a restaurant. The problem was that its appearance looked more like a salad establishment were herbivorous would go to graze and gossip. Inwardly questioning why Nick would choose this place he texted the fellow fox asking where he was.

"Inside, we already have a table on the left side." Popped up under the message he had just sent. Walking into the entrance it dawned on him that the rabbit was part of this too so that explained the desire for this place.

Finding the table with a fox and a bunny sitting next to each other they had left the other side of the booth open for him. Lifting his sunglasses he put on a smile to approach the table.

Nick raised a paw towards Stavanger speaking up to get Judy's attention. "There he is." It was comforting to see Nick in a better mood about seeing the younger fox.

Reaching the booth he greeted them "Hey, didn't know you were going to be so early." This time it was Judy who spoke up "It's just habit from working on the force. Now please have a seat." Stavanger obliged the bunny, sliding into the open side of the booth when Nick started to greet his two dinner companions. "Carrots, this is Stavanger, Stav this is Officer Hopps."

Settling into his seat he looked to the small officer in front of him giving a small nod accompanied by a smile. "I'm off duty, so it's just Judy." Nick then nudged her saying "You were just dying to say that weren't you?" Judy placed a paw on her head realizing she had just used her own name in a rhyme. "Nick please." Giggling a little from her embarrassment.

"So what's eating at you buddy?" Of course the master of masks could see through his forced smile. Nick was the one to teach him how to do it after all. Stavanger wasn't about to tell the truth so he said something that wasn't a lie either. "Nothing, it's just been a long day."

Just after he spoke a very confident waitress came up to the table "I see your third as arrived, can I get you started with some drinks?" Stavanger looked to see a young chinkara standing at the side of the table noting her speed to get to the table in such a timely manner. Switching back across the table from him he asked "How long have you been waiting here?" Nick shook his head saying "not that long really." The waitress was excited to explain "Nick and Judy come here often so when they said one more was joining them I just kept my eye out for your arrival. Now for those drinks." She turned to the two regulars "The usual for you two?" Nick nodded and Judy exclaimed a perky "Yep!" "And for you?" She asked Stavanger. He hadn't looked over the menu yet so he just went with a default of water. Just like that she was gone again, leaving the three to their table.

Browsing over the menu Stavanger asked "So what makes you come here so frequently?" "Well she really likes this place and I like that they offer a good selection of food for us omnivores." "Where are those at?" He asked scanning the pages for the more enticing meals. "Page three."

After making a selection he looked up to the fox "So... Officer Wilde, what made you want to go into the blue?" Nick tilted his head to Judy "All because of this little fuzzball." Understanding that Stavanger would know what that meant he told the story about the Nighthowler case and how he had contributed to it. Mid way through the story the drinks had arrived and orders for food were taken.

Judy already knowing how the story goes took the time to go wash up before the food came out. She was passing a long table with a modest number of rabbits at it, its smaller size was no doubt from living in the confines of the city.

A paw shot out and grabbed her wrist. It was another doe whose fur was tan, in fact this presumed mother of the bunch here reminded her a lot of her own mother. "You okay over there?" Judy was confused, unsure of what it was she could be talking about muttering "what?" The tan doe lightly pulled her closer whispering soft enough that only the few other bunnies right next to them could hear. "Those foxes aren't holding you against your will are they?"

She couldn't stifle her giggles when this bunny reminded her so much of her mother. "No I'm fine, those are my friends." "Well you watch yourself, those predators like to snap when they get their cravings." The doe released her grip on Judy but still held concern for the younger bunny. Judy reassured her that everything was fine. "Thank you for your concern but no one has anything to fear." "Just be safe." Is all she said before turning back to her family.

Judy went on her way to do what she needed and came back to the foxes chatting it up.

Back at the table she walked in to Stavanger saying "Ha, wow. Now that I think about it, it's been awhile since I have seen the little guy."

"Who?" She asked reclaiming her seat.

"Finnick" Nick answered.

Not wanting to take the back seat in the conversation anymore she asked both foxes "So how do you two know each other?"

Both vulpines answered in unison "We were coworkers" "Just friends" perplexed by each others answers an awkward silence held itself at the table for a couple seconds.

The waitress again with great timing came with the three orders of food. Placing each plate in front of its awaiting customer. "There ya go, Anything else I can get for ya?" Looking at the other two for a response that didn't come Nick spoke up for the group. "No I think we are good for now thank you." "Okay, let me know if that changes." She said when she left to go serve her other tables.

Stavanger made no effort in continuing conversation digging into his shrimp salad. His hunger from earlier on display for all to see. He did show a bit of control as he ate around the shrimp treats that littered his salad saving the best for last.

A couple compliments about the food was about all that was said tell Nick noticed Stavanger was almost finished "Did you even taste it?" Seeing that they were nearly only half way through with their meals the only response could say was "What, it was good."

Conversation started to pick up as dinner came to a close. The tab was paid and the three were just enjoying each other's company at this point. "So I promised you an explanation for this morning at dinner, but I didn't expect this place to be so popular on a day like this. So could you hold off a little bit longer tell we are out of earshot of others?" She agreed and the trio exited the building.

Stavanger convinced them to take the train back to their place as he did. To allow them to talk on the move rather than having to watch what they say in the back of a cab.

It was explained to her on the walk to the train station. About the L.C. targeting her and Nick for simply being associated with Mr. Big and his family. But once they got on the train and found a section of their own she voiced her objections about the whole thing.

"Nick why didn't you tell me this earlier? We could have reported this sooner. To get the investigation going and end this before it starts."

"We can't, our hands are tied." Upset that the new officer didn't think about going swiftly through the legal system to resolve it she shot back. "And why is that Nick?"

"Because one, once the ZPD opens an investigation they will find out about us having a close connection to the biggest crime family in Zootopia. Two, they are going to want to talk to the ones who told us and I don't think the Bigs are going to appreciate that, at all. And three, the ZPD is already trying to take down these hostile groups, adding this isn't going to speed things up."

Judy was astonished at the fact of his lack of faith in the very organization that they both worked at. But she hated the fact that he wasn't wrong. She had finally gotten her dream job and already she had a black mark on it. The fact that she was so close to the unlawful citizens made her feel unclean.

She wanted to hear his plan so she could have a chance to shoot it down. "Fine, what do you suggest we do?"

" 'We' don't do anything, he does." Nick said while pointing to Stavanger.

It wasn't tell then they realized he had fallen asleep. He was sitting with his body leaned against the wall beside him, his sunglasses all most being pushed off his head because of it. A dab of drool nearly escaping his loosely hung jaw.

That didn't stop Judy, she only lowered her voice to a whispering hiss. "What! Are you serious? He is an innocent civilian."

Nick matched matched her volume "Hardly, and besides, that didn't stop you when you did that to me."

"Nick that was different. You were helping me find a missing mammal, I didn't intentionally put you in harm's way."

The train sounded with the next stop, it being the one they needed to get off at. She waited till it was finished with the announcement before she continued. "We are suppose to serve, and protect the citizens to Zootopia. Not the other way around."

"He is going to do it whether we ask him to or not. Remember Mr. Big is the one who sent him."

The train slowed its speed for the upcoming station that the two conscious passengers of the group had to get off at. "So what do we do about the body?" Nick asked tilting his head to the snoozing vulpine.

"Wake him up."

Stepping over to him Nick hovered over him "hey... Heeeey"

Judy rolled her eyes "Why are you still whispering?"

Nick turned around to accuse her of doing the same "why are you whispering?"

Realizing she hadn't raised her voice back up she shook her head at the silly confrontation.

He smiled then cleared his throat to speak normal again "Hey Stav". Stavanger rose up from his slumber after a couple taps to the shoulder. " Mmmuaah huh?" He adjusted himself wiping at his muzzle while Nick explained. "Hey sleeping beauty, this is our stop. You think you can make it to your place?"

Looking out the window he could read a sign that displayed 'TROOP STREET' stifling a yawn he answered. "Yeah the next stop is my stop."

Nick backed away and slowly made his way to the door "Okay if you say so."

The group said their goodbyes and Stavanger continued his trip alone on the train. Checking his phone he had messages from all three contacts. Nathan didn't have anything so he wouldn't be in attendance. But everything was in order with the other two. One being the fence, and another being another partner of his named Temuco.

Walking home the cool night air blessed itself on his exposed features. This was more his element but being up a majority of the day had him dying for some sleep. He figured this is how things would be now if he had to work with Nick, he had to become diurnal.

He reached his door and opened it grateful that he still had an hour and a half to nap before his partner would show up.

About to be inside a thud behind him drew his attention to turn around. He was faced with a figure almost his height. He didn't have time to examine the silhouette when it leaped onto him knocking him down into his home.


	4. Unsuspected Guests

Chapter 4

Unsuspected Guests

Cool air from the outside seeped into garage through the open door. A nearby lamppost spilled it's incandescent light through the entrance onto the floor. The smell of a humid night saturated the skies. Sounds of a restless city penetrated throughout the landscape, and the feeling of dread filled his body.

Stavanger was underneath whatever had pounced on him. Not a word was said to one another as the struggle ensued. Only grunts, gasps, and the tumbling of their bodies stirred the ambience of his home.

The rooms orange hue fell significantly darker when another much taller figure stepped into the doorway, blocking out a portion of the light. This was surely a loosing fight, struggling with one he awaited for the other to join in but it didn't. It stood there and observed the two tussling on the floor.

The struggle continued deeper into his home, bumping into his couch. Fatigue crept into his muscles, he had to do what he could now or be at the mercy of his attacker.

Wildly thrashing around Stavanger was able to unbalance the mammal giving him a chance free himself. He pushed the intruder to its side and went on the offensive grabbing at its arms.

"Get control." The taller figure said in the doorway.

Stavanger understood why he hasn't come inside yet. He is just watching, it must be some kind of initiation, a gang member trying to prove himself. He was too distracted with his thoughts and allowed the mammal to gain the upper hand.

Being forced down again his muscles were spent. He had to do something that was frowned upon by all modern mammals alike. Digging his claws in he held on while snapping his jaw at his captive.

"Control it!" The coach spoke up again taking a few steps inside.

That's when Stavanger lost all control of the fight. The attacker pinned his arms and used its elbow to force Stavanger muzzle up. He was helpless with his neck completely exposed. Pressure started to cave in his airway, and he could do nothing to stop it.

He heard the larger one pat the one currently on top of him and said "Okay let him up." The lights to his home flicker on when pressure was released from his neck.

Finally able to see who was in his home he looked into the face of a young cougar who was staring at him with a peculiar smile, heavily breathing after the struggle. The face looked familiar but he couldn't place who it was.

Tell he glanced at the taller cougar standing over them. It was Temuco, father of the would be attacker and Stavanger's partner. His roll was to act as security in case a deal would go south or on rare occasions he would go along with Stavanger jobs that needed more than a fox and a squeal.

"What the hell!" He yelled at the feline. "What?" He asked in reply offering his paw to help the fox up.

Being hoisted back on is two hind paws he straightened his jacket dusting himself off, and looked for his sunglasses he said "damn it Tim." Then said to no one in particular "where are my sunglasses."

Temuco held them out for his partner. Taking them still sour about what happened he ask "What was that for?"

"I wanted to give the kiddo here some live action as part of his training."

Stavanger stared at him dumbfounded for a moment. "You could have at least told me about it."

"Then it wouldn't have been live action, it wouldn't have been raw like it was. I needed you to react as natural as you would, and you didn't disappoint. That little bit at the end there, good stuff." He turned to the smaller cougar "See son, what did I tell you about a mammals final moments?" The young feline smiled at his father a little embarrassed about how upset the fox was at being ambushed.

Taking a chance to look over the smaller feline he noted that he was a spinning image of his father. Even his outfit was similar to his father's. Black pants, a hooded dark grey over shirt and under that a black long sleeve shirt. The only thing he was missing from his father's outfit was the attached holsters for his twin batons.

"He is getting big." Stavanger noted out loud

Temuco walked over to his son and rested a paw on his shoulder as he agreed. "Yeah he is. But he isn't big enough to do business like me yet. Or to be out this late on his own." Now detecting his words to his cub "So get home before your mother finds out where you are. She would never let me hear the end of it."

The little feline said "Okay" hugged his dad and rushed out the door into the night.

Stavanger walked deeper into his home while he spoke to Tim "She still doesn't know?" Sitting in one of the chairs he replied "she knows that I am training him, but she doesn't know to what extent."

Rummaging through his things Stavanger continued his questions. "So how did you know when I would be back?"

I didn't, you just said what time to meet up and that you were out. So I figured you would be back a while before you wanted to meet up and we showed up 30 minutes before that. It was a real test of his patience but he got through it fine."

When he finished speaking he caught something Stavanger had thrown at him. It was one of the stacks of 5,000 bucks. "What is this" he asked.

"Payment" he said, then said the same words that Mr. Big hat wrote to him about the money. "For our past and future endeavours."

This reminded Stavanger that he forgot to tell Nathan about the money and new job. He was too tired to remember. Sending a quick text he cursed to himself "ah shit"

Tim picked up on it and asked "what's up?" Finishing his text Stavanger sat on the couch facing Tim. "I forgot to tell Nathan about his money, and the new job we have."

"Oh and that is?" Tim inquired.

"Weapons, Mr. Big wants us to get weapons. These to be exact." Stavanger passed him the page that came with the money.

Tim struggled reading the print that was already smaller than what the fox was use to, but he got the jist of it.

"How are we going to get these!?"

Stavanger shrugged his shoulders "I don't know most of those are more appropriately sized for mammals like yourself so I was hoping you would know."

The puma pondered for a moment before saying "Well I know someone told me the military is going to be doing a display here in a few weeks. I can't remember when for sure."

"We don't have a few weeks, he wants them as soon as possible."

"Well that's all I got."

Stavanger retrieved the page and walked over to put it away. "Ugh I am too exhausted to think about this."

"I was expecting you to be a little more lively, otherwise I wouldn't have shown up so early. What's up with you?"

Stavanger returned to his 'living room' and leaned against one of the chairs. "I have been up all day. Oh and FYI this is going to be a normal thing for me now."

Not wanting to admit that he is going to be spending an alarming amount of time with cops he lied to his partner. "Just trying something new, seeing if there are any other ways we can get ahead in this day in age. But anyway since you are here I could use your help with the merchandise. I don't want toss mess up our good name by missing something faulty."

The two went over the various things that had been collected throughout the week. Plugging it in if it was dead or just turning it on if it still had a charge. As well as insuring all the other objects were not damaged.

Some time had past when a large banging occurred on the door.

Both predators looked at each other in confusion. "Is that the buyer?" Tim asked.

"No, are you messing with me again?" Stavanger shot back.

Both approached the door, then it began to open on its own. Stavanger in his sleepy state just remembered he didn't lock the door after he came in. Hoping its just a wandering bum he yelled at the door to let whoever was on the other side know someone was in here. "Hey! Get out of here!"

It seemed to work when the door stopped its progression inward. But I didn't close either, and the sounds of voices outside didn't make anything better.

Tim placed his paws on his batons ready to un-sleeve them for a fight. Stavanger walked to the door to force it shut but it barely moved. "What the?"

Stavanger couldn't finish his thoughts when the door swung open knocking him back with a yelp.

Tim's quick reaction to pull out his batons and charge did not prepare him for what came into the door.

A brown bear did what it could to squeeze through the door before the puma pummeled it with quick strikes.

Taking the beating the bear was finally through the threshold and able to defend itself.

It lifted one arm to block any more hits to its muzzle while swiping at the feline with the other.

The bears thick hide absorbed blow after blow only feeling the couple hits to the paws and head. It was able to finally get a hit on the cougar sending him back a couple steps only to immediately re-attack.

Stavanger was lifting himself off the ground for a second time in his own home. Rubbing his nose he held back the tears from it being hit by the door. Watching the fight he knew he needed to help in some way, remembering he had brass knuckles stashed away he was about to get those.

Tim figured this strategy was going to make for a slow fight, one he didn't have the stamina for so he tried to redirect the fight to be able to move to the door and get outside where he could use his speed to an advantage.

Shuffling around furniture he made his way near the door. The bear saw this and charged the cougar slamming him into the wall almost trampling the fox below.

The cougar face to face with the bear let out a very feline roar as a warning, the bear didn't comply.

Tim pressed his hind legs against the bears chest and heaved falling to the ground when the bear no longer pinned him to the wall.

Stumbling on a chair the ursus continued back trying to keep its footing tell it hit the car.

Stavanger had enough of this home wrecker when his car was touched, finally wielding his knuckles he was ready. "Hey let's get him"

Tim huffed when he spoke "what do you think, I have been TRYING TO DO!?" He pushed buttons on both batons springing forward a blade at the ends of each of them.

Swiftly standing up he was ready to lunge when they heard a voice at the door.

"Hey. Enough! STOP IT!"

Tim and Stavanger looked over to see a meerkat watching the scuffle from the doorway.

Stavanger recognized her from this morning. This was the one who owned the cellphone he acquired at the Snarlbucks. He was so sure of it with the way she dressed, her fashion was not easily missed.

She cleared her throat stepping into the room with the other mammals while she clarified why they were there. "We didn't come here to fight, we came for my phone."

Stavanger's first instincts were to deny he had it but the fact that she had tracked him down to where he lived within a day showed she would know better. So he saved his breath to ask "Then what the hell was all this about!?"

"I have him with me in case someone like you wants to get violent." She pointed to the bear recovering himself off the car's side as she explained. "So how about you give me back my phone before things get really bad."

Stavanger couldn't help but wonder why this phone would be important enough to warrant this kind of action to retrieve it. If she knew the location she could have just told the cops. Maybe they would be too slow? He couldn't figure it out so probed at the subject the phone's value to get an understanding of its worth to her. Maybe even get a couple bucks out of the deal if it amounts to nothing.

"Sorry, we can't do that. The phone is already spoken for. Unless you can beat the price of its buyer." He lied hoping Temuco would catch on and not ask any questions to ruin it.

She answered with confidence "I will pay full price for the phone. I'm sure your buyer wasn't going to pay that for a second hand phone."

He deduced that the phone was of great value to her. Surely it had more to it then he had suspected. "For full price you could go buy another one. So why go through the trouble of finding it?"

"That's nothing to concern you!" She snapped back. "Now can I get my phone back?"

Stavanger's curiosity peaked, not satisfied with the easy cash he had just earned. "Something tells me this phone is worth more to you then your price. So what's so special about it? Got some nudies on here you don't want me to see?"

Annoyed with his antics she gave in to expedite her getting her phone back. "Fine you want to know, give me my phone and I'll show you."

Stavanger eased up now that a deal had been bargained. Moving to the middle of the room he responded with a demand of his own. "Okay sure, where's the money?"

"Yes because I carry that kind of cash around. You are going to have to take it on faith. That, or you can go back to being thrown around by him again." She said pointing to the bear leaning on the car's side.

"Hey! Would you get off the car!" Focusing back on the meerkat Stavanger said. "No dice, trust isn't something I am willing to give away so easily."

Temuco spoke his mind now. "I think we should do it. Worst case scenario we are out four hundred bucks." The feline tried to convince his partner not wanting to go another round with the bear.

"See, he is reasonable. Maybe I should be negotiating with him."

Conceding defeat Stavanger walked over to pick up the device. Walking back he had one more question. "So how did you know where it was?"

"It still had signal so I was able to track its exact location." She admitted

"But I turned it off."

"I have my ways."

Letting that slide for the moment he wanted to ask a more pertinent question. "So if you knew where it was why didn't you have the cops come collect your phone?" He asked taking a few steps closer to make the hand off as a way to entice her to answer.

"Well you wouldn't do me any good if the ZPD got you."

Both Temuco and Stavanger looked at each other perplexed by what they heard.

Temuco preceded to sheath the knives on the ends of his batons then holstering them as he spoke. "I'm not sure I follow."

The bear moved to her side when she took a couple steps into the garage. "I will explain more once I have the phone."

Stavanger looked to his partner and shrugged his shoulders "alright, I'll bite." He tossed the phone to her then lounged on his couch leaning on its armrest awaiting his explanation.

Catching it the meerkat looked over the phone to see if it had been damaged opening the home screen to see nothing had changed. "Okay, so this-" she held the phone up to display it while she described it. "-Is a bait phone. I have an app installed inside its operating system that let's me do certain things with the phone remotely if it has a connection. That's how I was able to find you."

Stavanger waived his paw around in the air while he spoke to get the conversation turned on what he was more interested in now. "Yeah yeah yeah, that's all fine and dandy. What has my attention now is you not going to the ZPD and saying we would be no good to you afterwards. What's that all about?"

Annoyed about being rushed past the part where she gets to show off what she could do she still obliged him. "Well long story short I let phones like this get stolen so they make their way around town collecting all kinds of info for me."

Seeing a hole in the plan Temuco pointed out "If you want these phones taken and distributed then why are you taking this one back?"

She elaborated for them "One, I was trying to install new software on the operating system that would allow me to do much more with the phones. Before I could only get a location, call and text records as well as access to audio and video. With this one I would be able to have a feed of what the phone is displaying giving me full access to whatever they are doing. But you took it before it was finished." Pointing at the fox peeved by his actions.

"Two I need a more efficient way of getting my phones out. I figured you would know people in those low places of yours. But as you revealed to me earlier you said you had buyers. So I would rather do a business proposition for you. I give you these phones and whatever profit you make on them you keep."

The two partners in crime again looked at each other baffled by what they had heard, both unsure of what to say.

"We can't do this." Stavanger said "Once it's found out that we're selling these we'll lose all credibility not to mention the backlash tha-"

The small mammal cut him off to reassure him. "No no no no. No one will notice it, and if they did it would look like it is part of the operating system. It's totally fine."

Trying to find some kind of silver lining that would make the risk even more worthwhile he asked "We still get the money for that phone right?"

Temuco turned to Stavanger dumbfounded by his question. "That's what you're worried about?" Looking back to the meerkat he asked "Why do you want to spy on random mammals?"

Stavanger commented in the background "Oh look at you, growing a conscience now all of a sudden."

Temuco snapped back "Hey, I'm just making sure we're not helping out the next Bellwether."

"I don't have any nefarious reasons for this. I find it fun and challenging." She added putting herself back in the center of the conversation.

"There is no way you finance this kind of 'hobby' for fun. What is it that you do with whatever info it is that you get?" Temuco asked wanting a direct answer.

She crossed her arms as a display of her stubbornness with this topic. "That's all you need to know. Maybe I'll tell you if you are good little boys and do what I ask of you."

The feline furrowed his brows trapped in his thoughts.

Stavanger's mind wasn't any slower racing with what might it could muster in its sleep deprived haze. He was thinking a bit along the lines of a quid pro quo to help out in the new jobs he has.

"So if we agree we will be partners right?"

"Yeah in a way." She responded

Temuco looked back feeling a little betrayed not knowing what was going through his partners vulpine mind.

"Okay, we'll help you if you first help us."

Curious to the foxes proposition she asked. "Help you with what?"

Stavanger glanced up to the big bear patiently waiting for discussion to come to a close. Noting his size and ability to at least withstand a beating from Tim. "We have a job to acquire some things. Not information like you, but physical objects. And I'm sure you'll be able to help greatly."

Not enthused with where this was going she said "Yeah I know your thieves. So what is it you want help with stealing?"

Satisfied that she at least entertained the thought enough to ask Stavanger's wicked smile grew. "Well this might sound crazy to you."

She challenged him by smiling back with an equal amount of deviousness. "With the things I know that happen in this city, try me."


	5. Sticky Situation

Chapter 5

Sticky Situation

Sirens wailed on a ZPD cruiser as it past vehicle after vehicle of the moderate morning traffic. The bunny behind the wheel looked determined at the road ahead as if she were playing a game and trying to reach its high score, calculating and predicting movements of the other vehicles like an obstacle course.

The fox in the passenger seat distracted himself with the radio in order to not witness the madness the car was being pushed to do. "We are 10-17 to the possible 10-44" the radio crackled back "Roger Charlie 8". No longer able to use that Nick had to sit back and observe what he would think is his impending doom.

"What's the matter slick?" Hearing her calm demeanor while behind the wheel of this nightmare ride agitated him further. "Is this really necessary?"

Judy softened her tone "Awww, is bunny speed too much? Should I drop it down to the sloth for you?"

Gripping the door and his seat to keep himself in place he took his chance to convince her that this abnormal driving behavior wasn't helping. "The sloth isn't all bad, he beat the hare in the race. I think we all could learn a lesson from him!"

Judy was taken aback by his statement. "No he didn't, the hare won."

Nick corrected his partner on this "What! No, the hare was over confident and underestimated the sloth!"

Judy's lead foot finally found a pedal that didn't accelerate the vehicle. Stopping the cruiser behind another she could now look at the completely mistaken fox. "No, the sloth was full of himself and a glutton. He challenged the hare out of spite. The hare obviously won but then went back to help motivate the sloth to finish as a kind of first step to a better life."

Nick looked to his partner astonished at her explanation of the story. He shook his head chuckling while he exited the car. "Boy Carrots, I sure would like to take a glimpse into your world."

Following her partner to the front of the cruiser she said "What? Its true."

They met in the front to continue to their destination. "Right, I'm sure it is." She knew he didn't believe her with the way he said that but didn't want to continue to argue the point now that they were approaching the police line.

Officer McHorn was using his towering height over most mammals to help coordinate the other officers to better deal with the current protest.

"Officer McHorn, down here." Judy said preemptively knowing the rhino would overlook the two smaller officers. "We're here and ready to help." She added once he found them down below.

"Ah Officer Hopps, I have the perfect spot for you and Wilde." He looked back over the crowd then back to the two partners. "On the west side there is a good vantage point. We could use your eyes and ears to help identify any more mammals that are here just to cause trouble."

Everyone was in agreement to the plan and headed to their position. Skirting around the demonstrators they had to weave through a couple to get to where they were instructed to go.

Observing the mammals they read a couple choicely worded signs. Adding that to the glares Nick was receiving hinted that this was a protest against predators.

Judy stood taking in the scene of this stretch of the river walk between the Palm District and Acorn Heights. Astonished by it she tried her best to hide her disgust at the reason why these mammals banded together here.

Hours had past with minimal incidents, Judy even had a few admirers approach her. But once they got a look at her partner the conversations would find themselves at an end. Nick was taking all this quite well keeping his professional demeanor even when it was obvious no one wanted him there.

Judy couldn't help but feel guilty about the unfair treatment. She tried to introduce him to those who would approach her, but it was to no avail. The mood was low and what happened next didn't help at all.

Nick was struck on his shoulder by a large plastic cup, splashing its half melted slushy contents all over him, nearly knocking him down in the process. The cool red liquid soaked into his uniform and fur.

Judy gasped at the event grabbing at his arm to steady him and stop him from falling. "You okay?" She asked him.

Nick's tone was a direct reflection of how he truly felt. "I'm fine."

She looked over his shoulders at the mammals around them. Most were hooting and hollering in support of the action. She couldn't identify the assailant because of the crowds density increasing with onlookers.

Judy shouted "Who did this?" The only response she got was the continued cheers and laughter of the surrounding mammals.

Nick stood up brushing some of the frozen treat off his uniform. "It's okay Carrots."

He was cool, calm, and collective. She knew this was him putting up his walls and as he always put it, not letting anyone see that they get to him.

Judy pulled out her radio to signal for other officers to come relieve them. "This is Charlie 8 I need a team to take over our position if available." Squelching back the radio said "Charlie 8 this is Charlie 2 what's your 10-20?"

Pressing the push to talk she answered "The west embankment just north of Vornoy Street."

"Roger, 10-17"

Judy put her radio away looking over her partner. He had just finished licking some of the red residue from his nose. "That won't be needed, see Carrots, I'm fine." He had on a smile even though his uniform was soaked and his fur stuck to itself from the sugary drink.

She envied how he could hide his emotions so well, more so when it helped him keep his professional composer in uniform.

Officers Higgins and Trunkaby arrived where Nick and Judy where. "What's going on?" The amphibious mammal yelled.

Judy looked up to explain "Nick was hit with a huge drink and now he is covered in whatever was in it."

The two towering officers looked at each other puzzled at the urgency of something so simple.

Judy filled in the gaps for them "Nick is covered in fur and once it gets sticky it mats together. Which can cause some serious problems."

The two furless officers shrugged their shoulders at each other then Higgins said "Okay I guess you should go get cleaned up."

Nick tried to reject the offer to show he was tougher then this. But Judy overpowered his words thanking the two officers replacing them. Then took his wrist and pulled him along to go back to the cruiser.

Getting past the crowd the two reported to McHorn to let him know they were heading back to the station and would finish the last couple hours of their duty day there. Getting the go ahead they got into their cruiser and drove off.

Judy would occasionally look over to Nick who didn't move since he entered the car. Even though he was sitting awkwardly facing the door on his side, it couldn't have been comfortable but he held it. She felt bad watching him brooding in his self made corner.

"Nick, I'm sorry."

Nick shifted his eyes to her then back out the window when he responded. "It's not your fault."

"But it is! If I hadn't said the wrong things at the Nighthowler interview last year none of this would have happened. These mammals wouldn't hate predators, this Luminescent Crowns group wouldn't exist, and you wouldn't be covered in someone's drink right now! I understand why you're mad at me but I will make it up to you and everyone else, I swear."

Nick again only adjusted his eyes to get what little view he could of her while he responded. "I'm not mad at you."

She was quick to point out why she thought otherwise. "Then why won't you face me?"

"Because I don't want to twist around and get my fur matted. And I don't want to get my favorite seat sticky." He said finally turning in his seat to see her but still resisting the urge to lean back into his seat.

Relieved to hear this Judy felt foolish about jumping to conclusions again. So she tried to switch the topic back to work. "Oh, Okay. Well we won't have enough time to get you cleaned up and changed at the station to be able to come back out. But we can't do nothing with the rest of our shift at the station. You want to call your buddy and ask him if we can bring him in for some questions to at least get this on record?"

Nick looked to the bunny with one eyebrow raised. "What, and let him see me like this?"

Judy giggled at Nick admitting his embarrassment to not want to be seen in the condition that he was in. "Aww come on, you don't want your big bad friend to see your sugary sweet side?"

Nick rolled his eyes chuckling at her attempted verbal jab at him. "You need to work on that there fluff." He struggled to pull his phone out but finally obliged her requesting sending the other vulpine a text message. "You might need to think of something else for our free time because I doubt he is going to be willing to do this."

His phone pinged in his lap. Reason the message all it said was "sure"

"Hmm" is all Nick voiced when he texted back asking where they should pick him up.

Judy caught onto that and asked "sooo...?" As a way for Nick to tell her what the plan was.

Scratching his head Nick said "Well I was wrong. He is okay with it. Guess I can say goodbye to my pride when he sees me this way."

Beaming with joy about being right Judy said "Ha! Okay where do we pick him up at?"

Nick stalled waiting for his phone to ding with another notification of a text message.

"659 Mainstream, Otterdam district." Was typed into his phone. Stavanger then dropped the phone on his chest closing his eyes collecting is consciousness. Being woken up by texts wasn't his preferred method. Granted he was asleep most of the day be he still wasn't able to adjust to his new sleeping schedule yet. Especially after the late night he had last night.

He finally had enough energy to sit up and sit on his couch normally. Wiping away the sleep in his eyes he sucked in a massive amount of air with a deep yawn.

Looking around the garage he remembered the happenings of last night. One of his chairs stood crooked now from part of the frame snapping under the weight of the larger mammals brawl. The cover of his car was still lifted exposing the side of the front from when he inspected if it had any damage.

He stood up stretching his tired body and trudged over to his car. I did one more look at it to surprisingly see no scratches or dents from the bear. He pulled the cover back in place and walked to his kitchen.

On his way he glanced over to the empty portion of counter that no longer had a stash of stolen goods. He was thankful that Temuco dealt with it by himself.

Stavanger started his coffee maker and set up a quick afternoon breakfast for himself. Almost finishing it his phone buzzed drawing him away from what was left of his food.

A message from Nick was on display saying "We're here"

Stavanger responded letting him know he will be right out. He quickly scarfed down the rest of his food and rushed to change his clothes. He didn't expect Nick would arrive so soon. He also didn't expect Nick's plus one to be accompanying him as well. To be honest he didn't really read the texts that woke him up. So on his way out the door he put on his jacket and sunglasses and checked his phone after he locked the door.

He reread the texts and it seemed like Nick just wanted to ask a couple more questions. Again he wasn't fully reading the texts because he was busy looking around the area for Nick.

Rounding the corner to the apartment building he saw a ZPD cruiser with a Fox and a Bunny in it parked in front of the building. He approached the vehicle asking "What's this all about?" to the open window of the cruiser.

Nick opened his door and slid out to open the back door of the car. "What were you expecting?"

Stavanger stopped and looked at the messages a third time now, reading it a segment he must have missed both times scanning through it "-you to the station to answer a few questions for us. We can-"

Being that he already agreed to it and they were already here he forced himself into the back of the car holding a deadpan scowl.

Once inside the chipper bunny behind the wheel said "Nice to see you again."

"Likewise" is all he said back. Once Nick climbed back in Judy backed out and drove back to Precinct 1.

Stavanger could see Nick was having a rough day but what caught his attention is the smell in the cruiser. "Is... Is that, cherry that I smell? What is that?"

Nick didn't answer so Judy did. "Yeah I think so. Someone through a drink at Nick and covered him in it."

Stavanger snickered in the back.

Judy interested why he was laughing asked "What's so funny?"

Stavanger controlled himself but didn't give her the answer she wanted. "Oh nothing, It's just that... I like that smell."

Judy let it go and continued to drive to the precinct.

Because they had Stavanger with them they went in the front door greeting Clawhauser and anyone else they happened to see. Nick made a beeline to the locker rooms to clean up and change. While Judy signed in Stavanger as a guest and walked him to their office.

Before they got there though they were stopped by someone in the halls behind them. "Hey Officer Hopps, Wilde."

Judy and Stavanger turned around to see a Grey bunny following them down the hall. His grey fur sported black stripes visible on his cheeks and ears that were as dark as the black blazer he wore.

"Did you do something with your fur Wilde?" He asked catching up to the other two.

Judy corrected her fellow lagomorph. "This isn't Officer Wilde, this is Stavanger."

The grey bunny extended his paw to Stavanger "My apologies, my name is Jack Savage, special agent of the Organized Crime Control Bureau.

Being polite while in the depths of a police station Stavanger shook the bunnies hand and said " Nice to meet you."

Jack looked to Judy now "I hear you and Wilde were at the protest."

"Yeah we were." She answered

"Did you happen to see anyone who looked like they were organizing the event? Anyone by the name of Ramiro?"

Judy shook her head "No sorry."

Jack buried his hands into his pockets and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, well thanks anyways. But I gotta jet, so I will see you around."

As quick as he came he was gone and Judy along with Stavanger were able to make it to their destination.

Pointing to Nick's chair Judy said "Go ahead and take a seat."

Both climbed into their perspective chairs. Stavanger didn't comment on the size of the chairs knowing that Zootopia could only do so much when conforming to all the different sizes of residents in the city.

Judy settled in her chair and started with some friendly questions to ease the tense fox. "Ok Stavanger, what's your full name?"

Not showing any signs of making this easy he responded with "Sta-van-ger" pronouncing it with each syllable.

This is about how the questioning went tell Nick walked into the cubicle to hear Judy at her wits end. "If you didn't want to answer any of these questions, then why did you agree to come here?"

Nick asked what was going on and Judy said "He just came here to delay our progress and impede an officer of their duty. He is wasting our time."

Nick looked to the all too comfortable fox in his chair. "What's up?"

"I didn't think I was coming here to be interrogated."

Nick said back "It's not an interrogation, these are just personal notes for us."

Stavanger threw up his hands gesturing to the entirety of the building as he said "Then why are we here?"

"Because I had to change and once we finish a couple forms we will be out the door. So you can answer them for us now, or wait tell we are done here." Nick explained to the grumpy fox.

Preferring the latter of the two Stavanger waited patiently down in the lobby.

After the two officers collected Stavanger they walked to where Nick and Judy resided.

They came to an apartment complex that was joined to the one beside it on this block. Walking through the complex to Nick and Judy's flat Stavanger asked "Is it okay if I have a friend stop by real quick? He lives near here and I have something of his."

Judy still a little annoyed with what had happened at the precinct just looked to Nick for an answer. He got the message and answered "Yeah sure thing."

"Cool, thanks." Stavanger said while sending out a couple quick texts. He looked up from his phone once he stepped inside to take in the view of the apartment.

Looking from right to left he saw a small dining room with a bar style counter separating it from the kitchen. Straight ahead of him was a hallway that had a door at the end and one on each side of the hallway. To his left was a living room area with a couch, coffee table, entertainment center and shelves with all kinds of knick-knacks.

The two residents went about their usual routine plugging in phones and placing keys where they normally would. While they did that Stavanger was drawn in the living room by all the enticing objects.

Scanning over everything he found something that he seen before. Taking a closer look he found it to be Nick's old glass chess board. "Yo Nick you still have this thing?"

Nick saw what Stavanger was talking about and chuckled. "No I wanted to save the box because it was pretty. Yes I still have it."

"We should play a quick game." Stavanger said with excitement.

Judy stepped in at this point "First I want my answers."

"Why are you so serious about this? You're not in any real danger. They just put me here as an extra incentive to not do anything."

Judy stood her ground saying "Even if that is true, I would like to know more about you. Especially if I have to trust you."

Stavanger pulled out the chess box and held it in front of himself. "Okay how about this. You and I play a game of chess. Each piece you take you get to ask a question. That we you learn to loosen up, and you get your questions answered, cool?"

"Fine" Judy said walking away to her room. "Get it set up, I'm going to change into more comfortable clothes."

"Same, hold down the fort while I'm gone." Nick said to Stavanger for no apparent reason before he disappeared into his room.

Stavanger opened up the box delicately pulling out each piece. Pausing to stare at one of the pieces he was lost in its nostalgia.

Judy emerged from her room to find Stavanger in a trance over one of the glass figures. "You okay?" She asked breaking the spell over him. "Ahhh yeah." He continued setting up the board on the coffee table in the living room.

Nick came out of his room when a tapping could be heard on the door. He opened the door with Stavanger quick on his heals.

A squirrel stood in the doorway wearing baggy clothing with elastic drawstrings at his waist.

"Hey Nathan glad you could make it" Stavanger said half behind Nick.

Nick stepped aside to open the door fully "Come on in"

"Thank you" Nathan said crossing the threshold.

Once inside everyone was acquainted with one another the chess game was brought up so everyone settled into the living room.

Confident of himself Stavanger pointed to Nick and said "This will be the warm up, after this I am coming after you."

Knowing Judy was well practiced in this game Nick chuckled at Stavanger boasting "Okay, if you say so."

Judy moved her piece first saying "I can ask any question here right?"

Stavanger made his first move saying "As long as your badges are not involved yes."

The game had started. Both players looked over each other and the board formulating their battle strategies.

AN: Hey its Vengeance here, just wanted to say this is all I have for now, I am working on more chapters but progress is slow because of my current work environment. But rest assured I am still working on this. If you like what I have so far or even seen parts that I could improve let me know. It will show me that someone is taking the time out of their day to read this. Its much appreciated and I really look forward to seeing what you all have to say, truly its motivating.


	6. Chess with a Side of Chide

Chapter 6  
Chess with a side of Chide

Four mammals lounged around in the apartments living room. Stavanger and Judy were sat opposite each other with Nick's chess board in the middle. Nick sat on the couch next to the newest guest Nathan making small talk with him.

"So Nathan you live in this area?"

"Kind of, I am just a couple blocks north of Little Rodentia." Nathan answered.

"That's quite the walk for someone like yourself." Nick said referencing the squirrels size.

"Naw, I was in the area already. I go to school down the street from here."

Judy finally got her first kill in the game. "Okay, question number one. What do you do as a job?"

Stavanger leaned back against the couch, proud of his answer. "I acquire things for mammals."

"Like what?" Judy asked

Stavanger waved his finger in the air. "Now now, that's another question." Leaning forward he used that same paw to move a piece of his own.

Nick looked back at Nathan and asked "So you work with him?"

"Yep" Nathan beamed at the fox next to him.

"Well someone has to look after him." Nick said half chuckling at his own joke.

Stavanger took one of Judy's pieces this time. Judy narrated "Okay, your turn. What's your question?"

"I don't have one. I guess just put it on my tab."

Judy accepted it and continued the game as Nick and Nathan continued their conversation.

A couple moves later and Judy had taken another one of Stavanger's pieces. "Okay, so if you're a-" Judy cleared her throat. "-mammal who acquires things, why would Mr. Big send you?"

Stavanger shrugged his shoulders saying "Good question, I don't fully understand that either. It could be because we are stretched thin now, so he is using what he's got. Or it could be because of my history with Nick."

Hearing this Judy looked up at Nick inquisitively already thinking of what her next question would be.

After a couple more moves she had the chance. "What kind of history do you have with Nick?"

Stavanger looked back at Nick to confirm if it was okay to tell her. Even he knew Nick was a reserved mammal when it came to talking about himself. Nick didn't show any signs of it bothering him so Stavanger explained "Well he taught me how to get around in the streets when I was younger. He and I would do what we could when we could, then he got us a spot working for Mr. Big's group doing all the little mammal jobs you know. We eventually had our own little skulk when Finnick would jump in from time to time. We did some peculiar jobs as well. Unfortunately Nick had a fall through with the boss and I haven't seen him since. I heard rumors that him and Finnick started doing their own thing." He then turned to look at Nick "easier jobs for the old foxes." Adding a wink in the end he turned back to the chess board.

Nick smiled and shook his head at the last part. Judy took note of the brief summary of the time they worked together. Hoping Nick would tell her more about it later to feed her curiosity now that she new of it.

Playing the game a little longer she had another chance to ask a question. This time she wanted something that would help her find out more about him on her own. "This time for real, what is your full name?"

Stavanger crossed his arms leaned back and released a disappointed sigh. "I told you, my name is Stavanger. If it will make you feel better you can call me by the nickname of Stav, if that makes it seem like Stavanger is my full name."

Annoyed by this answer again Judy narrowed her eyes at her opponent. Then up at Nick hoping he would be able to help her out since he knew the fox already.

"Don't look at me Fluff, I can't help you there." Nick said to her already knowing what she wanted.

Hearing that she came to an abrupt conclusion. Nick generally calls everyone by a form of a nickname. Everyone other than Stavanger. Sure he calls him Stav but that's just a shortened version of his name. Judy was already a shortened version of her name, but he would rarely use that as if it were her true name.

"Wait is Stavanger already a nickname? She asked between the two foxes as a loophole around the one question rule.

Nick took her bait by saying " No Stavanger is his name."

"Then why don't you have a nickname for him?" She asked thinking she had corned the two foxes in a trap.

Stavanger ran a finger back and forth in front of his neck, grumbling some incoherent words while Nick answered her. "Oh he's got a nickname alright. He just doesn't like it."

"You think I liked Carrots?" Judy asked accusingly

Nick agreed with her "True, but you warmed up to it. He never did."

"What was it?" The curiosity burning in Nathan's voice had Stavanger throwing up his hands and slapping them back down at his sides. "Now you've done it!"

Nick chuckled at the mixed emotions of the group so he wanted to finish it with the big reveal. "Cherry" is all he said and the room fell silent.

Stavanger had a paw over his face shaking his head at what was to come. Judy's nose twitched tilting her head thinking that Nick is just hungry most of the time when he comes up with these names.

Nathan did nothing to hold back his laughter exploding in a giggle fit.

Stavanger's deadpan expression showed a direct reflection of his enthusiasm for everyone, especially Nathan learning about this. "Okay Nathan there is no way it is that funny." Stavanger said attempting to quell his obnoxious reaction to the matter.

"Okay okay okay. I'm cool, I'm cool." Nathan said calming down still holding a big toothy grin. "Why Cherries?"

Stavanger knew if he didn't say anything then Nick would be the one to tell them anyway so he fessed up. "Well as you all are aware Nick and I are red foxes, shocking I know. But inside the red fox category we have many different fur mutations. Mine just so happens to be called Cherry. Because I'm darker and a couple other things that I don't care to explain but there you have it. Happy?"

Judy's thought of Nick naming everyone out of famine were dashed away. Nathan seemed done exaggerating his reaction of the name at about the same time Judy was ready for another question after swiftly taking another piece.

She knew she was getting nowhere asking him personal questions. So she switched to a topic that he seemed fine with talking about. "So what all have you 'acquired'?" Using her paws as air quotes for the last word.

Stavanger's confident smile reappeared. It irked her that he showed pride about not being a law abiding citizen. But his smile reminded her so much of Nick, and how he was when she first met him. How he once walked on the other side of the law. The only difference is Nick was smart about it. Stavanger is confident, and confidence only gets you so far.

"Well for starters these sunglasses." Stavanger answered while tapping the sunglasses on his forehead. Moving one of his pieces he then said "And with this being checkmate would you like to hear the story?"

Judy looked down at the board analyzing any move she could make none of which would prove him wrong. She had been so focused on just killing his pieces that she lost most of hers in the process. But she counts it as a win being able to ask the questions, winning the game would have gotten her nothing. Accepting her defeat she settled in awaiting his story.

Stavanger told it with great bravado earning him glares from the rabbit officer. Finally concluding the story he said "-Before I turned the corner I looked back to see the pig had picked up what was dragged off and that Nathan had gotten away. After that we met up later, I picked these out, and then we sold the rest."

Stavanger's swagger was shot down after Nathan spoke up in the end. "That's not what happened."

"Long story short, yes it is."

"Not the last part." Nathan said with innocence.

Huffing out a breath of air he knew Nathan wouldn't let it go. So Stavanger elaborated on it more accurately this time. "Fine" He shot then mumbled "you little shit." to the rodent before he began. "Okay so once we went over the prize it turned out that all the boxes were different assortment of lenses. To top off the bad luck none of the lenses fit the couple pair of sunglasses we did get. So after getting rid of what we could I bought the frames that just so happen to fit them, and here we are today."

He produced a case out of the inside of his jacket opening it for all to see. It had two rows of assorted lenses in different colors for many looks or applications. "I'm just lucky the lenses were my size when they didn't have these frames in my size out there."

Judy crossed her arms furious that he possessed stolen property in her presence and she couldn't really do anything about it.

Checking the time Nathan announced "Well this is fun and all but I do have to go." Noticing he had spent more time here then he had projected to.

Stavanger stood up from the table saying "I'll see you out." The two walked out the door after Nathan said his farewells.

Walking far enough to be considered out of earshot of the door Stavanger handed Nathan one of the bundles marked Ƶ5,000.

"I don't want to turn down free money but what is this?" Nathan asked gripping the stack of bills

Stavanger smiled from behind his sunglasses again quoting Mr. Big " It's for everything you had done and for our future endeavours."

Nathan was confused where Stavanger had come up with this money. Stavanger would normally give Nathan his cut of anything they got on the spot so this seemed even more out of place.

"We got another job." Stavanger said, "I will give you more details on it when we have some time, and a quiet place."

Inspecting the stack of money taking up both of his paws Nathan raised it back up to Stavanger. "Could you hold onto it tell then? I don't have anything to discretely carry it back in."

Stavanger took it back feeling foolish for not thinking of the complications the size and amount the bills would give his friend. Sure Nathan's species was twice the size of a mouse but he was still a rodent, and had the same limitations. "Oh yeah, sorry about that." Stavanger said while stuffing the money back into his jacket.

Stavanger then asked "You think you will be available tomorrow?"

Pondering the question Nathan answered "Yeah, usual time."

Stavanger nodded then they both said their farewells before walking away from one another.

Back in the apartment Nick and Judy were setting up the chessboard as if another game were going to be played.

Judy fumed out loud "So not only is he a thief but a shitty one that relies on luck, and this is who Big sends to 'guard' us!? Did he forget who we are and what we do?"

"Calm down carrots" Nick said to soothe her anger. "We're not in a favorable situation right now, but we have to do what we can."

"Nick, he is a criminal. We can't be caught associating with him. We would be labeled as crooked, dirty cops, and that is the best case scenario."

Nick tried to reason with her "Would you put a little faith in him? Sure he seems to get joy from doing the wrong things but was I so different?"

Judy responded "You can't compare yourself with him, you're different then him."

"But I'm not. We are cut from the same cloth. Remember he told you, I was the one to start him on that path."

Judy didn't want to believe that Nick was the one who would corrupt another mammal to live a lifestyle like his so she tried to shift her train of thought. Leading to the fact that Nick trusted and had a history with him. It made her want to trust him as well because Nick had a general good judgment of character. So she thought she would ask Nick a bit more about Stavanger.

But she couldn't help but continue to ask about the negative aspects of him "Why is it that he only feels comfortable talking about stealing things? You know we can't have him talking about that all the time, yet alone participating in that anymore."

Nick answered "Maybe it's all he can remember doing."

Judy raised a brow "Nonsense I'm sure he knew plenty when you two met. How old was he?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders "Honestly I don't know, if I were to guess I would say he was around 15 to 17. Putting him at about 24ish now."

She was confused by his answer "What are you hiding? You spent so much time with him but yet you don't know how old he is or even his full name?"

Nick let out a sigh but before he could explain a knock rattled the door and Stavanger's voice from outside could be heard. "It's me."

"Come in" both Nick and Judy said aloud. Once Stavanger was inside Nick said to Judy "I think he should be the one to tell you about his name."

Before Judy could reject the offer not wanting to repeat asking for a third time Stavanger beat her to it. "This again?"

Nick sternly looked at Stavanger "Yes, but the truth."

Groaning at the thought Stavanger asked Nick "Okay fine, but in return I'm going to want some of that Bourbon I know you always keep on stock."

Nick tilted his head obliging his fellow fox. "Far enough."

Judy took note of the time seeing that it was too early in her opinion to start drinking hard liquor. She tallied him being an alcoholic to the list of things she didn't like about him. What brought her out of these thoughts was the fact that Nick had returned with not one glass but two.

Watching the bronze liquid be poured into both cups had her astounded at Nick actually joining Stavanger in having a drink. She rarely seen him drink so she really didn't expect this to come out in him.

Stavanger brought the attention to himself after he took a sip of his drink. "So my name, in truth, yes it is only Stavanger. The reason behind that is the fact that I don't know my full name." He then chuckled staring into his drink. "Heck I don't even know if Stavanger really is my name."

"Why don't you know your own name?" Judy asked.

Stavanger took another sip of his drink "I forgot it. I guess, I forgot everything. I'm not sure, everything back then is a little fuzzy.

Nick chimed in explaining it better " When I found him he had no clue where or who he was, he even struggled with simple conversations. I think he suffered from some kind retrograde amnesia or something like it. He would have been put in an orphanage if I took him to the police or hospital so I took him in. I re-taught him how to talk and how to survive on his own. Unfortunately I was doing the same when was in my early to mid twenties. So he learned the ways of a scamming, conniving

Judy looked between the two foxes, a little ashamed that she was pressing so hard for information about Stavanger when there was none to get. A question came into her mind but she was reluctant to ask it but finally did already knowing the answer. "So do you know anyone from your family?"

Stavanger replied "Not that I know of, closest thing I had to that was Nick. For only being in his mid twenties he was a good father figure. He took a pause to take another drink. "Maybe roll model would be a better way of putting it. What do you think, dad?" Saying that last part while playfully winking at the older fox.

Nick chuckled at Stavanger and finally took a drink from his glass.

But Judy on the other hand didn't let their antics distract from the topic at hand. She found it overwhelming at the fact that both didn't have a strong connection to their families. Coming from a massive family like her own she couldn't imagine what it would be like to have such a small family or to not even have one at all. Maybe it was just a fox thing she thought to herself.

Finishing his drink Stavanger poured himself another drink Judy wanted to comment about him drinking this much so early but once she checked the time she noticed it was already a quarter past six. "Cripes, we don't have anything for dinner started yet."

Nick and Judy got up tossing ideas for dinner at each other whether they should cook, go out, or order food. While Stavanger stayed in his spot speaking to no one in particular. "Did she just say something about crêpes and dinner? No, no way." He stood up to ask the bunny "Is that why you rabbits are so energetic? You're just hyped up on sugar all the time?"

Both Nick and Judy looked at the other fox with muddled expressions. "What?" They said in unison.

"Crêpes for dinner, is that because rabbits need so much sugar to stay so hyperactive?"

"Crêpes for..." Realizing the fox had misunderstood her she clarified for him "No cripes not crêpes, its just something I say."

Let down by the news of not having the delicious snack he shrugged it off and went back to his drink.

"So Stav," Nick said "Will you be joining us for dinner tonight? You're more then welcome to."

Humming an agreeing tune into his drink he lowered his glass to speak. "Yeah if I can that would be great, it's been awhile since my last actual home cooked meal."

Judy grinned ear to ear excited to show off her skills as a cook. "Okay. Nick?" She asked leading him to the kitchen for him to assist her. She learned how to be a good cook while living with the masses of her family. But Nick was able to add a special flair to the food that she thoroughly enjoyed.

After getting dinner sorted out Nick and Judy were diligently preparing that evening's meal while Stavanger paced around the flat. "You guys seem to have it pretty good here." He commented.

Nick responded over his shoulder still minding the food. "Yeah its cosy. But I'm sure its nothing compared to where you live at. That place looks nice. I haven't seen the inside but it's in a nice enough area to assume its charming on the inside. I guess the pay cut I took by joining the force was bigger than I expected if this is all we can afford."

Judy just remembered about how she couldn't find Stavanger in any database at the ZPD's disposal. "So wait, how were you able to get that place without a full name? What name did you uname

Sitting at the bar that separated the kitchen and the dining area he answered. "I don't need a name."

"How so?"

"Because I don't actually live there. I live in an absolutely lovely garage on the property." Stavanger said jokingly.

Judy was appalled hearing about the foxes living standards. Nick on the other paw lived in similar conditions on his own as well as when him and Stavanger lived together. So he was a little less shocked to hear the younger fox continued to live this way. It seemed almost obvious that he would live this way given his line of work but no one knew whether or not his work was legitimate with Mr Big.

"We can't let you sleep in a garage." Judy said "we have a couch you can sleep on for tonight."

Stavanger rejected the offer from his host. "Naw it's fine, I like my home."

Wearing her feelings on her sleeves Judy looked back and forth between the two foxes with a sullen look. "It isn't right."

Nick sighed turning away from the food he was preparing to face Stavanger. "Don't worry, you wouldn't be a burden. Besides Carrots here is really stubborn, once her mind is made up that's that."

"Have I just been kitnapped and held against my will?" Stavanger asked playfully.

"Essentially yes!" Judy excitedly said.

Nick added in "Think of it more as being adopted-" He turned back to his portion of cooking saying over his shoulder. "-again."

Stavanger quipped back "So this time I have a mommy too huh? Good job daddy." He mimicked a kit's voice.

Nick hesitated for a brief moment at the comment but didn't let it get to him too much. Judy on the other hand couldn't contain her ears from heating up at the thought of her and Nick having a family together. She quickly went back to her share of the dinner preparation to avoid any confrontation in the matter.

Some time later the group had eaten, cleaned everything and now were back on the couch watching TV and playing a couple more rounds of chess while the board was still out.

Stavanger had been boasting about how he had beaten Judy in it so she set him straight demolishing him on the second game.

With ears splayed back Stavanger said "What was that? How did you..."

A smug smile spread across her face while she said "It's called a hustle sweetheart."

He responded rolling his eyes "You're lucky I'm still trying to get use to being diurnal. Otherwise I would go for two out of three."

Nick stood up and stretched his back saying "Yeah that reminds me, we have an early day tomorrow so I'm going to hit the sack."

Judy being reminded of their plans tomorrow asked "Oh yeah, tomorrow we are just on call, so we are going to get an early workout in tomorrow. You want to join us?"

Stavanger felt obliged to do so after they had fed and housed him for the night so he agreed to go. Besides, how tough could this rabbits workout regimen really be?

"Great!" She exclaimed "For tonight the couch is the only available spot, I could get you some extra blankets." Before a response could be made she made for the hallway.

Everyone set to their usual nightly routines. Judy brought out a stack of blankets and a pillow for Stavanger on the couch. She walked around to look over the armrest and saw his jacket being used as a makeshift blanket, under said blanket was the darker fox already out cold. He seemed all too use to sleeping on the furniture.

Nick came back from the restroom and stood over Judy "Aww, poor guy stayed up past his bedtime." Completing it by clasping his hands together as if touched by the sight.

Rather than waking him she placed everything on the table near him. He looked like a direct reflection of what she imagined Nick at this age, or at least how he could have turned out. Putting the fact that Nick taught him everything, and Stavanger's comment before dinner together, she couldn't help but actually think of Stavanger as Nick's kit. It was an odd sensation seeing as how she was about the same age as him.

Pushing those awkward thoughts away and not wanting to linger too long, she finally retired to her own room while Nick went to his.

A/N: One more chapter down, this should be the last one that I go off script so the next ones are going to take a little longer to actually hand write then proof read via typing it into my phone.

Thank you to those who gave a review, it helps me get better and allows me to tell a better story. Also dont worry, your questions will be answered in later chapters. ;)


	7. Of Muscle and Mind

A/N: Before I start this chapter I want to give a huge shout out to DiaH20, for going through this mess of a chapter and helping fix all my mistakes. I'm sure you will be able to see a difference after what he has done. Thank you, and enjoy.

Chapter 7

Of muscle and Mind

Stavanger woke the following morning to the sound of Judy going through the apartment. He sat up, seeing her in the kitchen bumping around in the dark for some water. Being that she lived here, she knew where everything was: It was just harder to do it in the dark. Especially after turning on the lights in her own room, she lost what little night vision her eyes had, but she was kind enough to not do the same out here and possibly disturb her guest.

He watched her fumble around in the dark when he heard the faint sound of an alarm come from down the hall. He pulled up his phone to check the time, it displayed 5:40am.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?"

He looked back over to where the voice came from, his eyes no longer as well adjusted to the dark. Knowing it was Judy, he responded: "No, I was already starting to wake up."

The alarm down the hall stopped. Quickly regaining his sight in the dark, he noticed the rabbit's ears swivel in the direction of the hall, listening for Nicks movements. "Ugh, is he still in bed?"

Unsure of why that mattered, Stavanger watched this play out. Judy walked down the hall and into Nick's room, and a number of words were said by both parties before Judy came back out.

"Do you mind if I turn on the lights?"

Stavanger didn't object to it, so the apartments lights flicked on in a stinging flash, illuminating the room.

The bunny walked up to Stavanger, who was still adjusting to the light, and said: "Today we were planning on going on a run, sound good?"

Stavanger responded, no longer needing to shield his eyes: "Sure, but I don't really have on the most run friendly attire."

"I'm sure Nick has something for you!" She said, then bolted off before any second thoughts could be voiced.

As she re-entered the foxes room, Stavanger thought to himself that Nick must have some kind of open door policy or something for her to go into his room so freely. Maybe they were dating? No, no way would Nick do that. But a second opinion showed that it was clear that they were more than just roommates, coworkers, or even simple friends.

A few moments later, Judy had come back. "So, Nick said you could use these." She held a grey shirt and dark blue running shorts in her paws offering them to him.

He took them looking over the shirt: 'ZPD' was printed on the front of it. Lowering it with a deadpan face, he asked rhetorically: "Really?"

She smiled at him "What? It's not that bad." She was referring to the style, while he was referring to the fact that it was a billboard for the police.

Breathing deep, he said: "Okay... So ahh," lifting each garment back and forth.

Judy finished his sentence by pointing down the hall: "Oh yeah, bathroom is at the end of the hall."

He thanked her, making his way down the hall, coming back after changing and relieving himself.

Nick was in the living room, wearing a green shirt and black ball shorts, and not looking pleased to be up so early. Although after seeing Stavanger walk into the room wearing his clothes seemed to have perked him up a little. "Wow, at this rate, Carrots is going to be a regular fox recruiter."

Stavanger looked down at the ZPD shirt. It fit Nick loosely, which is what Nick would prefer, but with Stavanger's slightly larger size he filled them in nicely. "You really don't have anything else that doesn't turn me into a police poster boy?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "That's my last clean pair here. The rest are at the station."

"Okay, everyone ready?" Judy asked, bouncing back out of her room. This time, she was tightly hugged by a dark blue sports bra and a very high cut pair of black and white sports shorts. Everyone collected what they needed and went out the door.

Stavanger couldn't help but feel self conscious about having a ZPD shirt on. He didn't want to give the wrong impression and he definitely didn't want someone that knew him to see this. He felt a little more comfortable when they got to the edge of the urban area. His comfort didn't last long when they made it to the base of the mountain separating Savannah Central from the Rainforest District.

While they stretched, he looked over the mass of dirt, loosely listening to the rabbit explaining the route. Hearing bits and pieces, he got the gist of it: Stay on the main trail. Looking over to Nick for inspiration on stretching, he couldn't help but notice the elder foxes blank gaze.

Following the line of sight led him right to the doe. Stavanger followed suite by tilting his head to gain a slightly different perspective. She was a very toned rabbit, who displayed her limber body proudly in her revealing outfit.

Eventually they were ready. Starting off, Stavanger felt good about himself and wanted to show off what he could do. Keeping a swift pace up the hill, Nick and Judy were slowly gaining more and more distance behind Stavanger. So much so that he could no longer see them, when looking back the winding trail, or hear them over his heavy breathing.

He had lost track of time, how far he had gone or how far he still needed to go. The realization that he slowed down in his daydream like state wasn't apparent, till the gray creature was back, hot on his tail. He wasn't about to let this rabbit beat him up this thing, so he pushed harder, keeping her at bay.

The air became saturated with artificial humidity spilling over the oncoming ridge. His legs were burning, side hurting and his lungs were out of reaching their limits, but he couldn't let her win.

Skirting the ridge, he observed the trail dipping down into a saddle. All he needed to do, was use that downhill to make his heavier weight and longer strides an advantage.

Doing just that, he gained a little lead, but as soon as the uphill continued, his legs finally told him that enough was enough. Losing his momentum, the rabbit officer quickly closed in on him.

Spite drove him on now, taking up as much of the trail as he could to prevent her from passing, but to no avail, as she bounced off of a nearby boulder and onto his shoulder. Leaping forward, she spun 360° in the air again, demonstrating her bodies agile abilities. She shouted back to tease the fox: "Come on! What happened?"

He hated the fact that she was enjoying this, that smile splayed on her face provoked him to catch her, but his body wouldn't push any harder, his legs engulfed in a fury of pain.

Nick was quick to pass him next, keeping pace with his partner. "You all gassed out now?"

Stavanger couldn't respond. at this point his lungs couldn't afford him the opportunity to speak.

On the ridge now, the wind would whip around, eventually coating his sunglasses in condensation. Unsettling his rhythm, he whipped them clean with his shirt, which slowed him even more.

This continued for the rest of the way up and around the mountain. The sun making its presence over the horizon known, shining through the city skyline onto the mountain's eastern face. This is where Stavanger was at the moment, regretting his choices leading him to this.

Thankfully the end of the trail came to a close on the top of this little peak. It was confirmed, once the two officers came into view. Nick held his arms behind his head panting as he walked in circles.

Judy identified the straggler coming up, shouting to motivate him through the last leg: "Come on, almost there!" Once he reached them, he rested himself on his knees, furiously catching his breath.

"What happened? You were doing so good at the beginning."

He looked up to see Judy next to him now. The moisture from the air collected on her in a form of dew, giving her a glistening grey appearance. Not able to tell if she was gloating or not, he waved her off with a grunt. Not totally out of his dislike for the rabbit, because he genuinely was too out of breath to respond.

A phone ringing broke the sound of the foxes panting. Judy silenced it by answering it and holding the device to her head. Not able to hear it, she distanced herself and found a spot that sheltered her from the wind.

Stavanger spoke to Nick: "You guys trying to kill me?" He said with short breaths.

Nick, who had fully recovered after one more deep breath, chuckled. "No, you just need to pace yourself better."

A smile finally graced itself on the darker fox' muzzle. "Yeah, you're right. Where the hell does she get all that energy?" Stavanger asked, still laboring for air.

Both vulpines looked to her. She gave up looking for a spot with no wind and chose to stand looking over the city. The wind pushing around her fur and ears accompanied by the sun's rays peeking through the buildings gave her a perfect super hero look.

Nick offered his answer, after taking in the scene before him. "Well, she can be very competitive. You turning it into a race didn't help at all."

"I didn't do that, she did!" Stavanger objected, but Nick knew better: "Ha, if you say so."

They both stayed in place, taking in their surroundings. Nick more focused on one thing in particular, who was now ending her call. She came back over, no longer as joyous as she announced what the contents of the call was. "That was the chief."

Nick didn't like the sound of that, being that the chief would never call just to say hello. "Oh please Carrots, hit me with it, get it over with."

"We have to get to the station as soon as we can. Most of the officers on duty now are dealing with a protest that's getting out of hand. He wants us to come plus up the reserve numbers, in case something happens."

"Of course." Was all Nick wanted to say on the matter.

Stavanger pointed out: "What about me? All my stuff is at your place." Adding another factor to the situation.

"You can come with us to the station, then we will give you a ride back once we are changed." Nick said looking to Judy to confirm it with her. "Sound like a plan?"

"Look at you, Officer Wilde. You know, you would make a great sergeant." Her underhand smile giving away the inside joke between the two.

"Oh, I'm not falling for that again." He playfully said back.

Arriving back at the precinct some time later, Stavanger again felt the uneasy feeling of going inside. It helped slightly when he entered and the place was fairly empty.

"Where is Clawhauser?" Judy asked, seeing his empty desk.

Nick took note of the time and said: "Maybe he is still switching out with the night guy." Looking at the other two, Stavanger specifically, he continued: "I guess if you want to take a shower, now is the time. That is if the most senior officer present gives the okay."

Bringing the attention to the bunny, she retorted back. "Well, someone has to keep an eye on you in there."

Splitting the group to go into their perspective locker rooms, Stavanger eased up a bit after seeing it was just as empty. "Keep an eye on you?" He quoted the rabbit.

Nick spun around, but continued in the direction of his locker: "Yeah, I've been causing some trouble with a couple pranks here and there, but to be fair, they all started it." He opened his locker leaning in as Stavanger spoke. "We about to cause some mischief?"

Straightening out of the locker, Nick produced some string in one paw, and a balloon filled with glittery water in the other. "You know it."

Half an hour later, the two joined Judy outside the locker rooms. She appeared rather annoyed having to wait for them. Nick didn't need her to say anything before he started to explain. "What? You should know by now that it takes much longer to dry our thicker coats. Plus, I totally forgot Stav here didn't have a change of clothes handy."

She glanced over him in one of Nick's pair of pants and signature button up shirts. Again, the clothing fitting better on this fox then it did Nick. "Well, I already got the keys to the cruiser, so we just need to go sign in now."

The trio made their way deeper into the precinct, so Nick and Judy could sign into their computers and start their unofficial work day. Making it to the large room where all the officers' cubicles were they ran into Chief Bogo himself.

"Ahh, there you are." He said as he inspected the three in front of him. Being the leader he was, he instantly knew Stavanger was not one of his own, but the fact that he was back here as well as wearing Nick's ridiculous shirts, raised more questions than he would like to deal with. "Who is this?" He asked his two officers.

Judy stammered forward: "This is, Stavanger. He ahh, he is-"

Nick stepped in to help out his partner: "He is our civilian consultant."

Not phased by this at all, Bogo asked: "Why haven't I seen the proper documents to authorize this?"

Nick had a quick answer for this as well: "He's here, so we can fill out said documents." Offering a smile in hopes that the chief won't quiz the fox as to what specific forms he needed for this.

"Very well, but I am going to need you two in my office as soon as you can be." He pointed to the two officers as he spoke.

Judy wrapped up the conversation for everyone. "Sure thing Chief, be there in a jiffy." Without another word, the two parties went their separate ways.

Reaching their cubical, Judy seethed at Nick: "What are you doing?"

Nick kept his cool under her hostile glare. "What? It's true, isn't it? Plus, look at it this way, Fluff, he will then be able to legally be with us."

"Nick, it takes a week just for the background check to get this started. Then, if he does anything illegal," now glaring at Stavanger for a brief moment as a way to send a message ",we will be liable for him. Not to mention the fact that we are now lying to the Chief."

His cool demeanor didn't diminish at all with her pointing out the flaws of his white lie. "Carrots, it's fine, this is going to work out."

Holding her scowl, she finally gave in: "Fine, but this is on you." She jumped up into her chair and began furiously typing away.

"I have faith in him." He winked at the very fox he was talking about.

"Okay, could you grab this out of the printer?" She asked from above.

As he made his way to the entrance of the cubical, Nick asked: "What is it?"

Judy spun around with half lid eyes looking down at the two foxes: "Stavanger's application form."

They had finally convinced Stavanger to behave himself and fill out the form, while they went to the Chief's office. On their way out, they came across Jack Savage again and had asked him to watch over Stavanger and help him out if needed. The buck only accepted after receiving some flattering remarks from Judy.

Sitting in the office opposite the water buffalo, they gazed upon his massive desk at the assorted stacks of paper, while he finished reading a transcript in his hands.

"Civilian consultant, huh?" He said over the page in front of his face. The two small officers had known they had been caught already, sinking further into their seats.

The Chief placed the paper down on the desk to speak to his officers directly: "I don't recall putting you on an assignment that would require such an aid."

Judy placed a paw over her face and shook her head. Nick could only do what he would normally do when he was faced with the buffalo: Give an apologetic toothy smile.

"My precinct isn't a playground that you bring your little friends to for a day of show and tell."

"Yes Chief!" Nick responded seriously.

"Now, I don't know what it is that you are doing and I don't care. Just go through the proper procedures next time."

Judy answered this time: "Yes sir!"

"I had brought you two into here to go over your annual performance report, I am going to let today slide, but mark my words: If this happens again, I will have you on extra duty," he said the last part pointed to Nick, then said: "and you on latrine duty." To Judy. Both being an actual fitting punishment for each officer. "Do I make myself clear?" He asked at the end.

"Yes." Both answered.

Pushing forward two folders, one to each officers: he stated: "Right then. With that out of the way, let's get these rough drafts knocked out."

Back in the cubicles, Stavanger was trying to fill out the page in front of him when a tapping drew his attention away from it. There stood the same darkly dressed rabbit from yesterday. "Hey Steven, was told you could use some help over here."

He paused, looking over the fox in what was normally worn by Nick. "You sure you're not trying to become Nick? You're looking more and more like him each time I see you."

Correcting the small OCCB agent, he said: "It's Stavanger, and no, I'm fine."

Jack paid no attention to the fox's words as he hopped up into a seat next to him. "So, what are you doing up here?" He asked, looking over the paperwork.

Stavanger sarcastically said: "Well, apparently, now I'm a civilian consultant. Whatever that is."

Jack pondered over this for a moment. "I didn't know Hopps and Wilde needed one. So, why you?"

Halting his progress, on the paper he swiveled his chair to see Jack head on. "I don't know, I guess I know things or something."

"About what?"

Not divulging too much Stavanger just said a simple phrase hoping it would mean nothing to the agent. "The Luminous Crowns."

"Really?" The rabbit said with devious enthusiasm.

An hour later, Nick and Judy had exited the Chief's office and were walking back to their own.

They almost got there, but Nick had passed Officer Wolfard in the hall. The two canines really hit it off well together. Nick being the only fox and Wolfard a lone wolf, the two would generally keep to each other in their own little pack/skulk.

"Hey, look at who it is! Nice to see you again, Wolfy. It's been a while."

Wolfard swung around, after hearing the familiar voice. "Hey!" He said back. "Yeah, I just got back from school. It's official, I'm part of TUSK now."

The wolf had applied to transfer over to the special urban tactics group known as TUSK. Being a wolf, he was the perfect size to join the task force, because they still held strict screening policies to filter out only the best mammals. To even join, a mammal would have to meet a specific size requirement, in order to handle the size of weapons mostly associated with the group.

"Good for you, champ. I'm glad you made it. Gonna miss seeing you around here though." Nick admitted.

The wolf reassured his fox friend: "Naw, you'll still see me here and there. I just won't be on the beat. Nothing is really going to change too much."

"If you say so." Nick said, slowly continuing in the direction of the cubicles. The three said their farewells and wished Wolfard good luck with his new position, before going their separate ways.

Reaching their own little office, they came to Stavanger and Jack talking to each other. Jack abruptly stopped, hearing the two officers approaching. He spun around and said: "Why have you guys been hiding this little gold mine from me?"

Both officers looked confused while asking: "What do you mean?"

Jack jumped out of the chair to level himself with the other two. "Him. Here I am, trying to figure out how to get to these Luminous Crown guys and yet you have someone right here who knows about them. What were you going to use him as a consultant for?"

Judy stepped in, remembering her conversation with Jack yesterday, saying: "I thought you were looking for-". She struggled with remembering the name, but Jack helped her out with it: "Ramiro? Yes, I am looking for Ramiro Sandoval, but he is seeking refuge in the LC."

"So, why is Ramiro so important to you?" Nick asked, crossing his arms.

"Because he is the one organizing all these demonstrations plaguing our city as of late."

Judy pointed out the law to the agent: "The citizens have a right to assemble."

Knowing this would have come from her, Jack had already known what to say. "This is true, but Ramiro's using these for the gain of his own group. You see, with all those protests, they only have to have a couple of their own there to rile up the crowd. The ZPD will then send in a large amount of officers to quell the massing numbers."

Judy caught on and finished it for him: "Then the LC is free to do what they want with minimal interference."

"Yep, and the added fact that all the news in this city is fixed on the big story, they don't bother with the little things happening on the side."

Nick chimed in from behind Judy, nudging her with his arm: "Classic misdirection."

"Precisely" Jack added.

Judy received Nick's quip as a call back to when he had done it to her, when they first met. She shot him a knowing grin before going back to the conversation: "How do you know that's what they are doing?"

Jack replied truthfully: "I honestly didn't know for sure until now. That's why I was looking for Ramiro at the protests, to see his involvement first hand, but after talking to your friend here, he told me some aspects of this case that match up with what we have. Such as the locations of the LC's activity."

"I'm not sure I follow." Nick admitted to Jack.

"Long story short, Ramiro is helping the L.C. gain a better foothold in this city."

Jack then asked the group: "So, how about this, you guys and your plus one report anything regarding Ramiro or the LC directly to me and I will put in a packet to make Stavanger an informant under the OCCB. This will be faster, given my resources, but also-" he reached up on the desk, grabbing the page Stavanger was supposed to be filling out and displayed it to the two officers: "-I don't think this is going to pass."

The page he held up had over half the spaces blank. Judy had forgotten about how Stavanger truly doesn't have the information necessary.

Stavanger had his chance to voice his opinion: "What if I don't want to work for you? I already have my obligation to them."

The buck explained it better for the one in the room who wasn't versed in criminal justice. "Look, nothing is going to change. I'm just going to help you help me. The paperwork will be OCCB and you will occasionally report what you know to me. Other than that, you will still be doing... Whatever it is you three are doing, I don't care. Sound good?"

Stavanger couldn't believe how a simple little lie had just wound him up in a mess like this. He was definitely not in his element here. So, he remained quiet.

Understanding what Stavanger's silence meant, Jack said: "Okay, fine, play it your way, but if you ever hear anything, I'm a call away." He handed Stavanger his card before he walked out of the cubical and down the hall.

Slouching in the chair, Stavanger took a relieving breath, but it was short-lived when he met the eyes of the rabbit officer. She already seemed drained from the small amount of time she has been at work. "Nick, could you get signed in, so we can go please?"

After getting everything in order, Nick and Stavanger walked to the main lobby of the precinct, while Judy went out back to bring the cruiser around.

By this time, Clawhauser had assumed his duty at the front desk, and hearing the footfalls of the two drew his attention to them. A curious look came across him, when examining the two foxes. The light one had on a uniform, while the dark one had an outfit that Nick was renowned for wearing. "Nick?"

"Hey Benji." The true Nick greeted with his friendly salute.

"What's going on?" He asked with eyes flicking between the two.

Nick glanced over Stavanger in his own clothes, then said: "Yeah, this is my body double. I am important enough now to need one."

The cat was rather confused by the statement, and froze with his mouth ajar.

"I'm just messing with you, big guy." The cruiser being driven by Judy had pulled in front and was now waiting for them.

"As usual, right on time." Nick saluted again, backpedaling to the front entrance, followed by Stavanger. "I'll see you around." He shouted back to the feline, who just offered a wave in response.

Judy watched both foxes exit the building, and it was odd for her to see this. Nick in his uniform, standing a little straighter, full of pride. Even with him loosely wearing the uniform, he still had a professional appearance. Then Stavanger in Nick's clothes looked like a reflection of his past, the younger fox' fur a bit more rustled and unkempt, compared to Nick's combed fur.

She thought to herself that he could represent what Nick could have been like at that age, or even now had he not joined the force.

Once they were collected, the vehicle drove off.

A/N: Well there it is, chapter 7. I am trying to get these pumped out as fast as I can to keep it a somewhat regular schedule. Unfortunately in the month of September I am going to be really busy with work so I will do what I can to get out a couple chapters.

Who knows, maybe adding comments will motivate me more to get these out. ;) Ha! Sorry, at to. Anyway let me know what you think and what I can improve on to make this a better story for you!


	8. Scheming

Chapter 8

Scheming

Stavanger had been dropped off at the apartment building that was associated with his home. He had all of his possessions in his paws, from when they had rushed to collect them out of the apartment.

He checked his phone for the time before he reached his garage door, it displayed 11:22am. Which gave him five hours to himself before his next hit time. That being the agreed time that everyone would meet up.

He had organized this on his phone under the police's noses while at the station. Sure that doesn't sound like quite the feat, but because this meeting was about procuring weapons it made it a considerably more risky.

Knowing how hard it would be to convince everyone of his plan, he was quick to do what he needed around his home so he would be able to take a little nap to better relax him. Mending one of his chairs that had been damaged during Temuco's fight with the bear took the longest out of all his chores.

He had set an alarm to wake himself 20 minutes before the assembly would take place. After having a quick snack he had dozed off on his couch. With how early his day had started, and as much as what happened from then till now, made it feel like it had been a full day already.

The sound of his alarm a couple hours later had reminded himself that his day wasn't over yet. He struggled to get off the couch after his legs finally started to feel the pain of that days workout hit him. Taking some time to tidy up his home before his guests arrived. He wanted to keep a nice, expert, and efficient appearance. Or at least as close as he could get to it, while conducting business in his garage of a home.

Soon enough Temuco had arrived, followed shortly by the bear and meerkat. Nathan came last, knocking on the steel door twelve minutes late. After being let in by a disgruntled Stavanger the rodent paused at the doorway, seeing the two unfamiliar mammals present at the meeting.

With his good hearted nature he greeted the two unknown mammals: "Hello," he said waving his small arm like an excited child. The meerkat instantly adored the slightly smaller mammals high spirited personality, that and the fact that she was no longer the shortest in the room made her a little more joyous.

She gave him a giggle and waved back at him, while kicking her feet back and forth as they hung from the chair's armrest. The bear behind the chair offered the little guy a smile and bobbed his head as he pinched the tip of his hat.

Nathan continued into his friend's home while Stavanger exchanged everyone's names: "Okay so now that everyone is here." He pointed to the rodent. "This is Nathan, Nathan this is Moe and," he was caught up on the bears name for a moment. "I want to say Magnus? Yeah, Magnus."

Nathan looked over the two a bit closer now that he was inside. Moe had on a black beanie to match her black tank top, but what caught his eye was her nose, and snake bite piercings, as well as a stud halfway down the left side of her muzzle.

Magnus standing behind her still, had on a white hoodie over his scruffy dark brown fur, with a grey flat cap atop his head.

Stavanger continued with the introduction. "They are going to be helping out with our next job." He took a seat near Temuco falling into the couch with a labored grunt as his legs protested his movements.

Nathan moved to join them to join them when Moe said: "Yeah about this 'job' of yours, you didn't really tell us much about it so I'm not sure we are in agreement yet."

The fox nodded his head and said. "Fair enough, but that's why we are here." Looking over the mammals in the room Stavanger asked: "Before I propose my plan anyone else want to throw their cards on the table?"

Temuco crossed his arms and legs getting comfortable while he mumbled: "Well you already heard mine." Looking around the room he saw no one taking the opportunity to speak up. "No one else?" Clasping his paws together, He then dropped his proverbial bomb by saying: "We will be stealing our weapons from the ZPD."

Satisfaction grew on his face as everyone examined him to see if he were joking. Then the room erupted in simultaneous questions: "You thought my idea was bad? You're planning on robbing the vary mammals who would be arresting us." "I thought you guys were suppose to be good at this? How have you survived this long with plans like this?" "How are we supposed to do that?"

Stavanger waived his paws up and down to calm those in the room: "Okay hear me out before you go all crazy on me." They simmered down obliging the fox waiting for his proposed plan.

"So, I'm sure you were thinking that I wanted us to go into a police station, and take the guns out of there right?" He asked rhetorically, not waiting for an answer he continued. "Well that's where you are wrong. You see I have recently found out that police cars have an AR as well as a shotgun in them."

"They are locked in there, so what are you going to do, Steal the car?" Temuco asked accusingly

"Not at all, the mount on the AR is thin enough to cut." Stavanger said calmly.

"So I suppose you think the cops are just going to let you do that, right?" Tim shot back

Stavanger tilted his head towards his feline friend: "Sounds like someone is still upset that no one liked his plan." Chuckling at the cats annoyed expression from his banter he said. "Actually it's not that it was a bad plan, it's just too far away. We can't wait weeks to do this."

Hearing this Moe questioned the timeline of this plan. "Weeks are too long to plan this out? Exactly how soon do you plan on doing this?"

"In the next couple days." Stavanger responded as if nothing was wrong with his answer.

Bewildered by the short timeline she shouted: "Why!? Why do you absolutely need them now?"

Remaining as calm as he could Stavanger said. "It's what our client wants." Trying to make it sound like a legitimate business.

She crossed her arms disappointed with his answer. "So who is your client?"

Waving a finger in the air Stavanger refused to answer. "Tisk tisk, we never divulge the identities of our clientele. That's not good for business."

"Then why should we help? We don't know who these guns are going to. What if these end up in the streets?"

Stavanger was reminded that the two new faces in the room were not exactly criminals. They had their own nefarious agenda, but were not the ones to bring harm to anyone. At least that's what he thought.

Bringing this to mind lead him to raise his own questions. "Same could be said about you. Why do you want to spy on so many mammals? For all we know you could be turning in all of our customers over to the police!"

She scoffed at his accusation. "As if, what we do is just as illegal as what you do. We just don't condone physical harm of other mammals."

"Oh don't even try to take the moral high ground. If what you say is true, then I'm sure you can ruin so many mammals lives sitting behind your keyboard."

The bear finally interjected into the argument: "Hey! Now now, this isn't a good start to our partnership. We both do bad, no one is better than the other. If we help you with this, will you help us when we ask?" He spoke with a hint of an accent that no one could place. He had a good grasp on the language but it was obvious that he was not originally from here.

This threw off Stavanger for a moment before he answered. "Ahhh yeah."

The little meerkat looked back up at the bear as if he double-crossed her. Letting out a huff of disappointment she spat at the fox "Fine, but you're going to owe us. So what's your plan?"

Finally getting back on track Stavanger explained. "So like I said before, each vehicle has two weapons in it. We just need to separate the cop from his car."

Tim pointed out one of the flaws of his plan: "Even if you could do that how would you get into the car?"

A smile graced Stavanger's muzzle as we was able to inform his partner of what he had recently learned. "Well, funny thing about that is, that they don't actually lock the doors. The cars have a system in them that if someone tried to take the car, it would shut off as soon as they push on the break without the key fob. Come on Mr. Mechanic I figured you would know this."

Stavanger had used this name as a reference to the fact that Temuco owned a mechanics maintenance shop, that he had inherited after his father's passing. The business was self self sufficient enough to be able to hold its own without Tim having to do much keep it running. The feline didn't know as much about automobiles as his father, being that it wasn't as much of a passion for him. However it still would annoy him when anyone would assume he knows everything about it simply because he owns the shop. Being called a mechanic was just one of those quips between the two.

Temuco dismissed the name by puffing out some air and shaking his head. Before he looked at the fox rather confused. "Wait a minute, how do you know that?"

"Internet" Stavanger stated as if it were a fact. Then his attention was brought to the giggling rodent between him and Tim. Curious as to what was funny he asked: "What's gotten into you?"

Rather than answering the vulpine Nathan looked to the cougar saying: "He calls you a Mechanic, you can call him Cherry!"

"Why you little.." Stavanger shouted trying to grab the squirrel but was too late. Nathan had anticipated it and leapt from the couch, chanting it as he skipped around the room.

Stavanger attempted to give chase, but again he was reminded of the sorry state his legs were in. Awkwardly standing up with a grunt he let the rodent have his fun.

"Cherry?" Tim had asked hoping Stavanger would shed some light on it, but Nathan was the one to answer. "His nickname is Cherry because he is a cherry fox!"

"A cherry fox? I don't get it." Tim stated. Stavanger ran a paw down his face with a sigh. "It's just my fur color category. Could we get back to the plan?"

Everyone other than Nathan seemed to agree, shrugging their shoulders wondering what the big deal was. Nathan finally settled down and sat in the other chair that was available, rather than going back on the couch next to Stavanger.

The meerkat had her face buried in her phone when she said with amazement. "Shit, he's right. They have something called a run lock ignition, just like he said."

Temuco asked "Are we certain that the ZPD uses those?" Wanting to be sure before they pressed on.

"Yeah." Stavanger said while he struggled to sit down again.

"You know this, a hundred percent?" Temuco asked again, to in force the fact that Stavanger knew what he was walking about. It wasn't that he didn't trust him. It's just that this was a particularly risky job to pull.

"Yes!" He insisted getting a little agitated.

Moe drew the attention of the fox back to her. "Okay police expert. Do you know what kind of locks are going to be between you and your prize?"

"It doesn't matter." He said with a confident smile.

She only raised her eyes from her screen when she spoke. "Have you stolen something before? I would assume you need to know what you're dealing with to prepare for it."

Leaning back in his own couch he calmly said "Not a problem, once we get a MVT, we are good."

Lowering her phone she pressed about the acronym: "What's a MVT?"

Happy to oblige her Stavanger explained: "Metal Vapor Torch, it's a sweet little device that negates any lock, or in this case, bracket, that I want. You see the ZPD installed SC5 brackets in their cars. I would assume that is so the varying sizes of officers can have guns more suited to their size. This adjustability comes at a compromise, the locking mechanism that holds the rifle in place is thin. About the same thickness of your average sized lock."

"Okay but you said you don't have one yet." She pointed out. "How do you plan on doing this in just a couple days when you don't have the most crucial tool?"

Feeling backed into a corner Stavanger thought of a ploy that would make it sound like he was already compensating for this. "That's why I said a couple days. So we can get one first. Otherwise I would put this plan into action now."

Calling his bluff Moe asked. "So how are you going to get one?" While tapping away on her phone again.

Stavanger looked over to Tim for help but no assistance came. He stammered an answer to her question: "I ahh... Well we don't give out names of our suppliers either, total confidentiality."

"Uh huh" is all she said still in a staring contest with her phone.

He continued trying to convince her, but had no success. Though what she said next threw him off guard "Okay we might have a hit on one."

Confused from what she said Stavanger asked. "A hit on what?"

Finally looking up she extrapolated: "We have a network far and wide because of what I do. So I can easily search for anything I want. To put it in layman's terms, it is like a search engine on the internet. But specifically for us, and with no filters."

The three thieves looked at each other unsure of what to make of what she said.

"I'm not sure I follow." Temuco said leaning forward showing interest in the matter.

"It's okay, you don't have to." She said. But the bear behind her shifted his weight around and gave her a grunt.

She looked back up at him again huffing out her disappointment. "Ugh, okay. So as you know I allow my bait phones to be stolen." Eyeing the red fox she emphasised. "Most of the time." Then went back to the group. "As a way to distribute them around the city. We gather info from these phones like location, browser history, who they call, and what they text. All this data is sent to a server that is stored for whenever we need it. Just type in keywords and a list comes up that I filter through for the answers I want."

Stavanger understood what she was saying but this raised a question about the phone that brought them together: "So if you have so many phones out there doing this already, what made the phone I take any different?"

"That one I was adding a new program to add more features, and I wanted to test it out to see if it worked. I had to get it back because it is the only one with the software on it, and I didn't want to start all over."

Tim grew more intrigued about this phone, legitimately curious about it: "What kind of features?"

She told them with a smugness to herself as she boasted what she could do: "I would have access to pictures, a live feed from the audio and camera, be able to listen in on their calls. Even be able to stream what is displayed on their phone to my computer. This is why I want you to start doing whatever it is you do to get these phones out there. Because they would give us so much more data."

The thieves had a look about them that suggested they were reconsidering their partnership with the stalker like meerkat.

"So that's that." She concluded. "Now you understand? Anyway back to what I was saying. I found one, you want it? We can organize this now to have it in your paws by tomorrow."

Stavanger quickly answered before reverting back to the previous topic. "Yeah sure, but ahhh... What do you need that in depth of data collection for?" He asked spinning his fingers in the air as a rewind gesture.

Irritated that they were still stuck on that she answered with a little venom in her words: "It isn't for me, it's for the guy who maintains the server. I just make the programs for the phones, and in exchange I get the benefits of having all of our resources at my disposal. Now do you want this thing or not?"

Accepting the answer Stavanger said. "Yes we want it. What do we have to do to get it?"

"Nothing you guys can do, I got this. Consider this an act of faith. So when the time comes, you will do the same for me."

Tim and Stavanger looked at one another a bit worried how ominous that had sounded. They didn't know what it was that she would ever need them for but that is something they would have to deal with when the time comes. Because as of now, they needed that MVT. Their gazes got pulled back to her from her next question. "So how do you plan on getting to the police cars without being caught?"

Stavanger gestured over to the rodent sitting in the other chair: "Because of him, he will cause a distraction warranting the officers to abandon their vehicles to save him."

Everyone looked to Nathan who was extremely fascinated with a card in his paws. Moe looked a bit closer to notice it was her ID. He had snatched it from her purse when we was skipping around chanting Stavanger's nickname.

"Hey what the fuck!?" She shot up switching to the side of the chair that was closer to him. "Give me that!"

He stood up and shuffled to the edge of his seat, holding out her ID. "I like your name better than Moe, Monica Surica. To be fair my full name is Nathaniel Petauris."

She snatched her ID back from him fuming. "The hell!?"

He continued to innocently name off everyone. "He is Temuco Pallatin, and Stavanger... Cherries." He improvised Stavanger's name with the nickname he had learned about giggling as he did it.

Tim began to protest Nathan's actions: "Are you fucking serious!? Were you not paying attention? She just told us she is some kind of super, techno, stalker, and you give her our full names!"

Stavanger buried his face in his paws mumbling under his breath: "Damn it Nathan."

Paying no attention to the furious feline he looked up to the bear asking. "What's your name?"

Monica answered before the bear took a breath to respond: "It's just Magnus that's all you need to know."

The bear disagreed with his smaller counterpart saying. "No, this is good. We need to have trust in each other. Yes we have code names to keep us safe but we don't need to save ourselves from each other." He looked down to the shortest mammal in the room. "I like you Nathanial, you are honest. My name is Gerben Björn."

"Honest, he is a thief!?" Monica shouted.

"Are we so different? They take physical objects were as we take digital."

After securing her ID she sat brooding back in her chair.

"Please, continue your plan." The bear had said to the fox.

"You sure? Are we done?... Okay so that's pretty much the plan. You guys get the MVT, Nathan will provide the distraction, and I will go in for the goods. On my escape Tim will cover me if anything goes wrong. I would also like to have you there as well if you're willing. Nothing too serious, just using your size as an obstacle."

Gerben mulled this over in his mind. He had just preached about being a team so refusing them now would be contradictory. None the less he understood the risk which is why he didn't answer at first. After some time he had finally said. "Yes, I will help."

Monica objected: "No, you don't have to do this. We are already doing our part."

The bear smiled down at the concerned meerkat. "I know this, but I have an idea how I can help more." Straightening to speak to all the mammals in the room he asked. "Once you take the guns you can stash them in my trash truck to make your escape. Just tell me where you do this so I can make my route of the day next to it."

Stavanger glanced at Tim a crooked smile rested on his muzzle. Temuco nodded his head then accepted the bears offer. "Yeah, we could use some diversity in our escapes, so they don't catch on to a pattern. We could even incorporate you in what we already have. I like it."

"So it's settled then? That's the plan?" Stavanger asked the group to which the overall answer was yes.

"Okay perfect" he said while struggling to stand up again. Moving to the center next to his coffee table, he extended his paw saying "Welcome to the team."

Monica was a little hesitant but she took the fox' paw in her own. "Yeah."

Gerben took his paw next in a very firm shake as his paw completely enveloped Stavanger's. "Thank you, but I must ask, are you okay? You having issues with your legs?"

Being released from the massive grip of the bear Stavanger looked down to his legs then back up figuring out that his post workout struggles were not go unnoticed. "Oh yeah, I'm just sore from an intense workout this morning."

Hearing this Temuco questioned Stavanger "I didn't know you worked out regularly."

Not wanting to reveal that he had done so with two police officers he said: "Heh, yeah, kind of a spur of the moment thing."

Gerben voiced his concerns of this to his new team. "It is only going to be worse tomorrow and the next day. We can't risk you not being able to do this. Here I have something for this." He reached into his wallet and pulled out a business card for a local spa and handed it to Stavanger. "I have an appointment here tomorrow at 10:30. Please take this as a token of our friendship."

Stavanger was surprised at the generosity of this bear he had barely known. Surely he was a kind mammal to do this. But this was too much, Stavanger felt awkward accepting this. "No thank you, I'm good. Besides, this is yours, I'm sure you scheduled this for a reason."

Showing a bit of stubbornness he forced the card back down to the fox: "I insist, I don't want you not performing at your best. Because then it puts us at risk too. The only reason I had scheduled this, is because I know the mammals who work there. Tell them I send you, they will take care of you."

Finally accepting it Stavanger put the large card in a pocket on the inside of his jacket, being that it wouldn't fit in his fox sized wallet. "Thank you."

Gerben smiled and nodded to the vulpine. "You will enjoy it."

"Okay well this is nice and all but I got to go." Temuco said standing up from the couch. Making his way over to the fox and bear he offered his paw for a couple farewell shakes to his new teammates. "We will be seeing each other around."

"I guess we need to get going as well, we have some things on our end to get to." Monica had stated while Gerben nodded in agreement.

It seemed like a very formal way to conclude their gathering. Tell Stavanger looked down to Nathan who had his paw extended in the fox' direction.

Stavanger chuckled "What are you doing?"

"We are a team now right?"

He shook his head at the rodent. Though he wasn't wrong, technically no one called the trio a team until now, when they added the other two. Going along with his antics Stavanger shook Nathan's hand. "There, welcome to the team, happy?"

The smile that grew on Nathan's face was all Stavanger needed for an answer.

Everyone had left after exchanging their goodbyes. Gerben had given Stavanger the money Moe owed him for returning the phone he had stolen. As well as the first batch of phone that needed distributed as per their deal.

Stavanger had also remembered to give Nathan his money now that he had a bag to put it in on his way home. He felt bad about not being able to exchange it for smaller bills but Nathan didn't mind.

His garage was now empty. Stavanger contently sighed before he collapsed onto his couch. His mind racing through thoughts of the days to come.

A/N: Hey so sorry this one took a while to get out, like I said I was rather busy with work so I applaud your patients with me. As always let me know if I can do better to make this an easier read for all of you, and with that I bid you adieu.


	9. Tenderising the Tension

Chapter 9

Tenderising the Tension

The morning started how most would when nothing early was planned. Breakfast was splayed out on the table with a cup of coffee to go with it. Its smell permeated through the room, covering it in a thick blueberry pancake scent. Music from an online radio station played softly from a nearby phone, adding to the calm, warm ambience of his morning.

The red fox enjoyed mornings like this when he wasn't rushed out the door. Still getting up at what he would think of as an ungodly time, he would do it just for the fact of seeing off his favorite bunny.

They had the day off, but Judy elected to go into work anyway, to at least catch up on some overdue paperwork, and run some minor errands before she could feel satisfied with taking time away from her favorite pastime.

She entered back into the same room as Nick. "Thanks for breakfast, Slick."

Nick looked over to the other end of the table, to her meal that had hardly been touched. "Yeah, looks like you really enjoyed it." He said sarcastically.

Her ears instantly fell behind her head when she noticed he said that, because she had barely eaten her food. She caught on to the sarcasm and tried to repair any offence Nick may have taken. "Sorry, I've been rushing around, but I really do like it. It was sweet of you to get up on your day off and do this for me."

Feigning a hurt expression, Nick said: "Hmm... The fruits of my labor lay dormant in those very pancakes that you are so disgusted with."

Getting used to his sarcastic way of poking at her, she eyed the table once more. "Fruits of your labor, huh? Well, blueberries are more your thing anyways."

Nick had an easy retort for this: "Yeah, I figured you wouldn't eat, so I would have more for myself." Adding a wink at the end.

Judy couldn't tell if she had become that predictable or if he was just joking with her. Either way, she didn't want the food to go to waste or allow him to be right. So, out of spite, she sat down and continued to finish her breakfast.

He chuckled at this, then took a couple bites of his own before he spoke again. "I don't see why you are going in today. It's not like all that paperwork is going to run off."

In-between bites, she responded with her own snarky remark. "It's not like that paperwork is

going to fill itself out."

"Do you really have to go in today to do it though?"

She felt touched that he didn't want to see her go. For a brief moment, she thought about canceling her plans and stay home with him. However, after their annual report review, she wanted to do what she could to improve herself before it became finalized. She even wanted to put a dent in Nick's paperwork as well, to help him out, demonstrating that they are a good team and should stay together.

"Sorry Slick, but I'll be back before you know it."

Seeing how fast she had nearly finished her food was a testament to her speed. Convincing him only slightly, he said: "If you say so."

Finishing her breakfast, she slid down from the table and took her used dishes to the kitchen, placing them near the sink as she said: "Look at it this way: You can use this to go out and have some guy time."

She moved over to the table and gave him a kiss on his cheek before saying: "Anyways, thanks for breakfast!"

"If that's my reward, I might have to try this more often." He looked at her with a cunning grin to add to the flattery.

He expected her to get flustered by this, realizing what she had done, but rather she said: "If that's the case, then all the times I cooked breakfast puts you in quite a bit of debt." She shot him a sly smile to match his own. Winking before she turned away, she continue getting ready for her unofficial day at work.

His grin only grew when she said that and had walked away. The fact that she had turned his own words against him showed she was learning. What really had him caught up though, was the thought of having that many kisses with her, even if it were just on the cheek. This, coupled with the view of her hips swishing side to side as she walked, had his mind in a twist.

Once she removed herself from his view down the hallway, he snapped out of it. Finishing his food, he did the same by placing the silverware, plates, and cup next to the sink. He would clean it all later after Judy had left.

Judy had come back out and almost bumped into Nick at the entrance of the hallway. Even though she wasn't on the clock, she still seemed rushed to get to work. Before she got to the door, she asked: "So, what are you going to do today?"

Nick followed her to the door. "Not sure, have some guy time like you said, I guess."

"Okay, just stay out of trouble you."

"I will, but only because 'you' told me to."

She beamed a smile at him and hugged him with one arm before she walked out the door. What she didn't expect though, is Nick kissing the top of her head when she hugged him. Stepping back, she looked up at him questioningly. Usually he wasn't one to show affection. He would normally tease her by flirting with her, so this caught her off guard.

With his sly smile plastered on his muzzle, he said: "What? You said I'm in debt and I have to pay it back somehow, right?"

She stood frozen with her ears beginning to heat up. She did in fact say this, but she didn't think he would take it seriously. It was just their usual banter between one another. "Yeah, I did..." She said, then trailed off lost in her thoughts.

"Now run along little bunny, you have oh-so important work to do." He said, pulling her out of her imagination, as well as a way of teasing her for making the decision to go to work in the first place.

The flustered bunny made her way out the door and down the street in the direction of the precinct, leaving Nick in the apartment to his own devices.

He had taken the time to finally organize his room before he got bored with that. He then started to wash the dishes that were collected near the sink. As he did his own personal errands around the house, he had texted a few of his contacts, asking if any were available to hang out and catch up on lost time today.

Stavanger, being one of the recipients of these messages, looked to his phone as it pinged during his own morning ritual. He responded by telling Nick that he had an appointment in the next 45 minutes. After that, however, he would be free.

Sliding the phone back into his jacket, Stavanger continued to replace the lenses of his sunglasses to a different color for today.

After checking himself over one more time, he stretched his stiff legs once more, then started out the door to his destination. Halfway there, he checked his phone again and Nick had replied, saying they would meet up at Buffalo Wild Bugs to watch a couple games. Stavanger thought this was a little uncharacteristic of Nick, but then again, so was him joining the police force. He accepted, sending back a text to the older fox.

Finally arriving at the address, he looked over the building. It was on the hilly dunes of Sahara square. Ironically, the closest station to here was called "Big Dune". With this vantage point, the building had a wonderful view over the Sahara area to the left, the beachside straight ahead, and the main city to the right.

He approached the main door feeling a bit nervous, considering a large mammal like a bear was the one to originally book this appointment. So what kind of species would be the one performing it?

His nerves were racked a little more when he opened to formidable door sized for larger mammals as well. Thankfully, it was spring assisted to allow smaller mammals like himself through. Stavanger lucked out even more, considering his legs might not have been able to forcefully open such a door to begin with.

Stepping through the threshold, his senses were overwhelmed by the quick change of his surroundings.

The A/C cooled building sent a chill down his spine, while the air was filled with the fragrance of incense that tickled his nose. The interior had a completely different appearance to it when compared to the outside as well. The latter appeared as an adobe, but once inside, everything was modern, the architect favoring glass and wood for a more modern look.

He made his way past the small waiting room to the main desk that had a lioness in a white tunic behind it. Nervously approaching, he said: "Hello."

The feline looked down to the smaller mammal and graced him with a friendly smile while she greeted the new customer. "Hey! What can I do for you?"

Stavanger cleared his throat to not sound as nervous as he did when he first spoke to the receptionist. "I ahh, I have an appointment today at 10:30.

Looking down at her log of expected mammals, she asked for his name.

"Stavanger," he answered in a more questioning tone.

Mousing over the page, she couldn't find his name. "I'm sorry, but you don't seem to be on here for this time. Could it possibly be on another day or time?"

He inwardly scolded himself for being so naive. Of course it wouldn't be in his name, as he didn't make the appointment; the bear did. So he corrected himself. "Oh, yeah, no. The name should be ahhh... Ma-Magnus? Yeah, Magnus."

The cat again looked at her schedule, this time a little more suspicious of the fox with his odd

choice of names. "I don't see a 'Magnus' in here either, I'm sorry. Would you like to schedule an appointment now? I can see when the soonest available spot is."

She started flipping through her book as Stavanger stood in disbelief that he could only remember the bears code name, completely ruining this opportunity. Before he could reject her offer, another figure appeared from behind the smoked glass wall behind the desk and asked: "Where did you get that name from?"

Stavanger looked over the desk to see an arctic fox with a similar white tunic looking right at him. He responded to the vixens question. "Ahhhh, an acquaintance of mine, we work together." He said, unsure of how to truly answer her. Then he added: "He's a bear."

That tipped her off enough. "Ah, so it's you." She then looked up to her colleague and said: "He is taking Mr. Björn's slot today."

Seeming to understand that the vixen knew of the two switching places, she jotted down some notes on her pad and simply said: "Okay."

The female fox proceeded to walk around the desk to greet him. She extended her paw saying: "My name is Kimberly."

Taking her paw in a quick shake, he said back. "Stavanger."

"Nice to meet you. Right this way please." She said, motioning him to follow her.

Stavanger did as instructed and followed her down the corridor. After rounding the first corner, he had asked: "So, how did you know who I was talking about? I didn't really give a good description." He laughed a little at himself with the last words.

"He had told me someone was going to take his place today. So when I overheard you two talking at the desk, someone said 'Magnus', and then I knew it was you."

Being lead into an elevator, he asked: "So, you know him?"

She responded as she hit the button to go to the desired floor: "Yeah, we grew up together back home. Then both our families moved here together."

Stavanger nodded his head, listening to her tell him about how she knew the bear, trying his best to keep eye contact when he did look at her.

"Do you only know him as 'Magnus'?" She asked him, wondering how close of acquaintances the two were.

"Ahh, yeah. He said his name once, but I can't remember it. He just always goes by 'Magnus'."

The doors to the elevator opened up and Stavanger continued to follow her through the building, listening to her as she talked. "Well, his name is Gerben. 'Magnus' is the name of something in a videogame he plays." She tried to stifle her giggle, then said: "I swear, he is such a dork sometimes."

He remembered when the brown bear had been invading his home, taking Temuco head on. This was not someone he would have classified as 'dorky'.

Reaching one of the three large rooms at the top of the building, she held the door open for him to enter. The room was a magnificent terrace that had a lattice for a roof. The view looked out over the sandy dunes and nearby buildings, giving a perfect picture of the beach. The other two rooms to his left and right had just as good of scenery, adding to the luxuriousness of the establishment.

Once in the secluded area, she instructed him that he could remove his clothing in the corner and once he was done he, could lay on the table with one of the towels on him. After he showed her that he understood, she stepped out of the room.

Following her instructions, he went into the corner where it had a privacy wall and began to remove his clothes. Not quite understanding how much he needed to remove, he contemplated getting completely naked, or to keep his underwear on.

He hadn't realized how long he had been, until the door opened up once again. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to play it safe and keep on his undershorts. Walking out from behind the wall, he saw the white vixen again. He had thought that she was just another receptionist, not an actual masseuse.

She took a glance at him, then said. "Oh no, ahh, you take those off and put on what fits you in the drawers."

"Oh, sorry," he said, retreating back behind the wall. "It's fine." She had giggled back to him.

The counter he had placed his clothing on had a large assortment of drawers. He opened the one that had the size and gender code closest to his size. Peeking inside, he pulled out one of the clear plastic bags. Inside it was something he could hardly call 'clothing'. Pulling it out of its wrapper, he held up a black disposable jockstrap.

As he looked through its semi-transparent cloth, he asked: "Do I just wear this?"

He didn't have to see her to know she was holding back a smile as she said: "Yes."

Swapping out his underwear for the much more revealing attire, he looked over himself. He wasn't ashamed of himself at all, in fact he had a little bit of a confidence boost. Having these on and knowing a vixen would see him in them only added to it.

His imagination got the best of him when he was thinking of why a spa like this would have customers wear this to a massage. Yet, he did fail to ask Gerben about the nature of this massage. What could he be getting into right now? Why does this vixen want him to have close to nothing on? The fact that she was a fox only amplified his imaginings.

He didn't fear his ideas of possible scenarios that could play out. What he did fear, was his body's reaction to them. Feeling a sort of heat, he had to do what he could to push images out of his mind.

Not giving his body any time to have a reaction, he came around the wall and approached the table. He climbed to the center of the padded table. It was low enough for him to do with ease, but its width and length made for all sizes made him feel small. He shuffled himself up to the adjustable headrest, laying himself down just short of it.

He pulled the towel over his backside and breathed out a contented sigh when he rested his head on his crossed arms. The view wasn't the best he had ever seen, but it, as well as the ambience, was soothing to him.

"Comfy?" She had asked, causing one of his ears to swivel in her direction. "Mmhmm," he hummed to her as a response.

"Good, now is there anything I need to know about at all? Any sore areas you feel need a little more attention?"

Stavanger lifted his head to free a paw that he used to pat the areas for a visual aid. "My lower back and legs are pretty beat up, but that's about it."

"Okay," she said as she continued to situate everything. "Do you have an allergy to eucalyptus, lime, mint, grapefruit oil, or rosehip oil?"

"Not that I know of." He answered.

She picked up a bottle of massage ointment, slathering it on her paws as she carried the bottle under her arm. She set the container down, while she vigorously rubbed her paws together to warm up the substance between her paws.

She stepped in front of his view, placing her paws on his head, smoothing back his fur, then messaged his temples with her thumbs, as she explained the product she was using to him. "This is part of our 'Essence' pack called 'Breathe'. It's good for respiratory health, the unique

consciousness refreshment formula helps give fatigue relief. The eucalyptus is a sterilizing antiviral painkiller. It can be used as a muscle soreness ointment. Also, it has insecticidal effect, and can ease the pain of insect bites."

From under her paws, he said: "Wow, you're really giving me the complete package."

"Yeah, you could say that." She said, pushing her paws to the back of his head. "So, how did you and Gibby meet? You said you work together?"

Understanding that 'Gibby' must have been her name for the bear, he thought of what to say. He couldn't tell her the truth, but at the same time didn't want to be known as a garbage mammal. "I guess you could say we work together. I make the plans for the routes he would go on."

"I see," she responded. "How is that working out for you?"

While she worked her paws to his ears, he said: "Well, I have only been working there for a couple days, so I'm not sure yet." He preferred keeping it simple, so she wouldn't delve deeper into his 'occupation'.

She waited till she had finished with his ears, understanding that with his vulpine hearing, he wouldn't understand anything she would say while his ears were being massaged. She returned her paws to the back of his head, instructing him to place his muzzle in the head rest, which he did. "So you have only known him a couple days?"

Not having to lie about this at all, he answered: "Yeah, I think the first time we talked was four days ago and yet, here I am already enjoying his generosity."

Still working on the back of his neck, she hummed in agreement. "Mmhmm, he is such a sweetheart. At a first glance, he has a rough exterior, but he's really just a big softy. Like this for an example: He always books these messages here with me, knowing that I'm not going to be able to get all the knots out of his muscles. Yet he still likes to support my job. I kind of feel bad for it, but he justifies it as payback for me helping him with coming here."

"What do you mean?" Stavanger asked, wondering what she meant by helping him come to Zootopia.

She answered: "I helped him learn the language, because he hadn't studied it as much as I did before we came here."

Stavanger recalled to when Gerben actually spoke and how he had an accent, but he was still proficient with the language, having only minor errors. This vixen, however, showed little to no traces of an accent, demonstrating her mastery of the language.

A little curious, Stavanger asked: "So, then where are you from?"

She moved herself onto the table beside him to better reach his shoulders as she explained: "We came from a small town in the northern countries."

Not knowing much about the region, he preferred to ask about Zootopia. "What made you want to move here?" He asked with a huff as she pressed onto his shoulders.

"It was actually our parents who moved and brought us here a couple years ago."

"Oh, so you like it here?" Stavanger asked.

She answered him honestly. "At first I didn't, because I didn't want to leave home, but this place has grown on me."

Enjoying the feel of her paws, he only responded to her answer with: "That's good to hear."

There was nothing added by either party after that. Stavanger was walking the line of his consciousness. Her paws were systematically going over his body, leaving a trail of relief behind as she released the tension in his muscles.

Eventually, she had made her way to his lower back, straddling him to add more pressure to his more stubborn knots as she said: "If it's too much, just tell me."

Wincing at her first pass, he waited till it was finished, so he could speak with a level tone. "Okay, will do."

He continued to contain himself, but it had gotten increasingly difficult when she got to his legs.

Stavanger had to actively resist his need to clench his fists. He didn't want to show the fact that she was causing pain because of the possibility that she would let off the pressure, or think of him as having a low pain tolerance.

She had worked her way down his legs to his feet and back up. Reaching his thighs, she worked her way up the inside of his legs, causing a shiver to travel down his spine as her paws nearly brushed his more private region.

He then understood why he had to wear the skimpy underwear. It allowed her unrestricted access to all his muscles. Her getting so close to his manhood did spark an excitement in him. One that he was glad was forced into the table, rather than being open for her to see.

Again demonstrating the reason for the near naked appearance of Stavanger, she made her passes up to his hindquarters, sparing none of his muscles. He felt a little awkward about it, but

she showed no signs of trepidation while working in this area at all.

Eventually, she worked her way back up to his shoulders, triggering a couple of pops from his back, before she switched over to his arms.

His arms weren't particularly sore at all, but when her paws moved down to his, he felt an sense of warmness within him as their paws touched one another.

The moment only lasted so long, until she switched to his other side and doing the same thing, giving him the brief moment of their paws together again. He couldn't understand why he was feeling this way due to such simple touches. It wasn't like he knew her or anything, nor was he known for being close with anyone.

Either way, it didn't matter as the massage had come to its conclusion. It wasn't until she turned off the soothing melodic music, that he noticed it had been on to begin with.

Stavanger hummed in protest of his experience with the vixen coming to a close. "Hmmm"

She half giggled while she asked: "You okay?"

He replied after clearing his throat, as his voice had cracked when trying to say the first word. "Yeah, I'm fine, just being a puddle of fox here."

"I wasn't too rough, was I?"

Pulling his muzzle out of the head rest, he propped himself up on his elbows, looking to her as he spoke: "No, that was perfect, I really needed that."

She cleaned her paws as she retrieved the bottle near Stavanger from the table. "I'm glad you liked it." She grabbed another towel and handed it to him. "The oils will help rejuvenate you as well as all the other perks that I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, your naturally waterproof outer coat isn't going to allow what's on it to be absorbed by your fur and skin. So, rather than getting your clothing all oily, you can wipe it off, but make sure you don't wipe against your fur. You only want to take off the oil on your outermost coat."

Stavanger took the towel and started to get up from the table, while Kimberly finished reorganizing before she left the room.

He shuffled off the table, wiping at his fur as he reached the corner of the room where his clothing was.

After smoothing his fur back down, he re-dressed himself after taking off the odd disposable underwear. Not sure as to what he was thinking, he actually pocketed the item rather than throwing it in the bin.

Exiting the room, his muscles felt sore at the moment, even worse than before. He felt as though this was counterproductive, but assumed it would get a lot better as the day went on.

Kimberly escorted him back down to the front desk. This time, he was more concentrated on the vixen leading him, watching as her figure shifted back and forth as she walked, her tail doing a rhythmic dance behind her with each step.

He was snapped out of his ogling when she spoke: "Don't worry about paying, that's already been done. Also, next time you see Gibby, let him know I said 'Hi'."

"Will do. I will be sure to thank him for giving me such an extravagant gift." He said, complimenting her skill.

Hearing this, she invited him to return anytime he wanted: "In that case, you can schedule to come back anytime you like."

Stavanger responded with a shrug: "I would love to, but I don't know what my schedule looks yet, so I'm going to have to wait for that."

She smiled while saying: "That's fine, I will be here when you've figured that out." Offering the russet fox a warm smile.

He didn't know much about the arctic fox, but that smile of hers made him want to change that. However, he couldn't pursue that desire of his. The combination of his sheepish personality towards the opposite sex, as well as his current agenda, prevented himself from saying anything other than his farewells. "Okay, well, I guess I will see you when I see you."

Agreeing with his statement, she responded by saying: "Yeah, I look forward to next time. Then, you could maybe even return the favor." She added a seemingly simple wink at the end.

Stavanger perceived the motion as very flirtatious, making him a bit bashful on his exit. "Yep, so I will ahhh... Keep in touch and ahh... I will hopefully see you again soon." He said, backpedaling to the main door.

She waved at the shy fox fumbling over his words as she called back. "I look forward to it, and have a nice day."

Opening the mechanically assisted door, he said back: "Thanks, you too!" Before he stepped back out into the heat of the day.

Placing his sunglasses back on his muzzle, he checked his phone while he walked away from the adobe style building.

He had a couple texts, but the one he responded to first was one from Nick, asking if Stavanger were ready yet and where he would be able to meet up at.

Stavanger responded by typing: [Just got done, where you at now?]

A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for reading and I hope you didn't hate that chapter. Props to DiaH20 again for trudging through this story and fixing it to a point where it is actually bearable to read. Also sorry about the delay, and I have to tell you now this is a trend that might continue through the month of October as well, again I'm sorry.


	10. Guy Time

Chapter 10  
Guy time

A red Lobos Z1 van with an intricate painting on its side drew near. It turned into the parking lot of a mall that had been closed down for reasons known to only those involved in the project.

However, with the structure emptied, its parking lot was as lively as ever. Packed with all kinds of vehicles arranged in an assortment of categories. The van directed itself to an adjacent lot that had spaces still available for it to park.

The grey door on the driver's side of the van swung open, allowing a small tan fox to drop from his raised seat to the ground and adjust his aviators as he shut the door. Walking to the front of his van, he patted his blue collared shirt, dusting it off.

The passenger side door now shut, slightly rocking the vehicle as another mammal came to the front of the van. Scratching the inside of his ears, he spoke to the smaller fox: "You know, Fin, one of these days, your music is going to cause you to go deaf."

The fennec fox clicked his tongue when he responded. "What's the matter? Little Nicky can't crank the tunes anymore?"

Rolling his eyes behind a pair of his own aviators rather than bickering, Nick let the comment slide while he coaxed Finnick forward with a gesture, saying: "Shall we?"

"Yeah, isn't this what we're here for?" Finnick said, stepping forward as he lit a cigarette.

Both foxes walked through the lot, filtering between the parked vehicles. Crossing into the other parking lot, the quality of cars increased exponentially. They were assorted in various categories, dependent on their classification.

Passing through the first row of cars, they walked into the middle of that row, before stopping to take in their surroundings. Nick took in a breath of air and said: "Isn't this quite the sight? Biggest car show I have been to so far. It has everything!"

Finnick looked around for himself. "Yeah, but it's not the best."

Unsure how it could be better, Nick looked down to his friend and asked: "What makes you say that?"

The small fox looked up and over his sunglasses to Nick with a semi serious expression, saying: "It doesn't have my van."

Laughing at the response, Nick put two and two together and questioned Finnick about the vehicle: "So your van has been in a show before? When? I don't remember this."

Finnick began walking forward to tour around the cars as he explained. "Yeah, you wouldn't remember, as you weren't there. It was..." He trailed off, trying to remember when it was, but couldn't. "Ahh, I don't remember when, but anyways, it was in for it's unique style. A true diamond in the rough. Art at its finest."

Nick couldn't contain himself this time. In a fit of laughter, he said. "You talking about that gaudy painting on the side of it!?"

Finnick snapped back, "It's not gaudy! It's a work of art!"

Residually laughing at his friends passion for the painting, Nick then pointed out: "Then, why don't you enter it in this?"

Narrowing his eyes behind his dark lensed aviators, he agreed with Nick venomously. "Fine, I will, and I'm going to prove you wrong."

The two foxes wondered around the lot, briefly browsing through the cars as they looked for something that would be a registration area, until a collection of pop-up gazebos and advertising banners drew their attention to that area.

Making their way over, they asked if Finnick could enter his van and to Nick's surprise, they said yes. After receiving instructions on where to get his vehicle inspected and how to fill out the display forms, they started walking back to Finnick's van.

"Get ready to eat your words," Finnick said, climbing up to his seat. Nick rolled his eyes and said back: "Okay, if you say so."

After they had driven around and got the van inspected, Finnick drove to where he was designated to park for the aesthetic area of the car show. Taping his vehicle's information to the driver's door window, he stepped away and look at his 'baby' on display. "You want to put a bet on this?" He asked Nick.

Nick was just walking around to the front of the vehicle to meet up with his fellow fox. "A bet? Like what?"

Full of confidence, Finnick smugly said: "Well, if I get voted to at least 3rd, then I win. If not, you win."

Interested in the bet that seemed to be in his favor, Nick asked about the prize for the winner: "Okay, what are we putting on the table?"

Thinking it would be a little more fair to allow Nick some kind of input on the bet, Finnick responded: "You have anything in mind?"

"I can't think of anything. How about a gentlemammals bet?" Nick replied.

Finnick looked up to his counterpart with a slight look of disgust. "What's that bunny done to you?"

Nick could only say an accusing: "What?" While he laughed, before another voice sounded, drawing their attention.

"There you are," a timber wolf had said, closing in on the two foxes

Both foxes looking over, Nick had recognized the wolf: "Wolford, so glad you could make it buddy."

The tall wolf greeted them with a wave as he said: "Of course! Why wouldn't I take advantage of both of us actually having the same day off?"

"No argument there," Nick replied.

Only seeing the two foxes in front of him, Wolford asked: "Where's Hopps? I thought she had today off too?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Nick responded: "She lives at work. Come on, you should know this by now."

This elected a laugh from the larger canid: "Yeah, you're right. So, anyways, let's check out some of these cars. I passed one up when I was looking for you, and I wanted to go back and check it out."

Taking steps in the direction that the wolf had pointed, Nick said: "Alright, let's go take a look."

The three mammals meandered around the lot, stopping at a few cars that interested them. They had walked through a couple rows, sharing their ideas and opinions on each car, when the fourth member of their group finally arrived.

"Hey Nick, sorry I'm a bit late," another red fox had said.

The group looked over as Nick responded: "Hey Stav."

Seeing Stavanger walk up, Finnick scoffed: "You invited this little runt too?" Maintaining his aggressive attitude, even though he didn't mean any harm in his statement.

"I knew you missed me. How are things?" Stavanger said back, not phased by the smaller fox's quick barbs. Sure enough, Stavanger knew Finnick and knew of his more aggressive attitude, often using it to his advantage when he would want to easily annoy the small vulpine.

After he joined the group, Stavanger looked at the non-fox in the gathering with a suspicious expression. Seeing the new addition's confusion, Nick stepped in for the introduction: "Stavanger, this is Wolford, he works in the T.U.S.K. division."

Wolford had extended his relatively large paw to the darker fox. Stavanger accepted the paw as he asked: "As you heard, I'm Stavanger. Now, may I ask what exactly 'T.U.S.K.' is?"

"Tactical, Urban, Seizure-" Wolford began to explain, before he was cut off by Finnick. "Ugh, okay, honestly, nobody cares. I think it's best if we just try to keep work out of the topic list today, okay?"

Finnick had gotten over the fact that Nick had joined the ZPD, but would rather live in the illusion that he hadn't yet. So, meeting Nick's new coworkers wasn't anywhere near the fox's priorities.

Stopping the introduction had also saved the group in itself, seeing as how two were agents of the law, and the other two were not the most civil of mammals. Everyone other than the oblivious wolf had caught on and moved the conversation past this.

Browsing through all the cars on display, each of them showed off their knowledge, or at least their interest, with each car. Nick liked seeing the older vehicles, restored to their former glory. Finnick would comment about how all other vehicle's appearances were inferior to his van's. Wolford favoured anything that wasn't imported, while Stavanger was more into the tuning aspect of the vehicles, legal or not.

Hours had passed without the group noticing. They had watched cars show off their sound systems, go onto the Dyno, be compared side by side, and many other events.

Eventually, they wound up back at Finnick's van to check his registration papers to see how many votes he had.

While Finnick gauged where he stood amongst the others, Stavanger commented saying: "Wow, I didn't know this was open to anyone. I would have brought my car." To which Nick said: "I didn't even know you had one."

Stavanger turned to his old mentor and explained: "You remember that car I was always talking about, always saving up for?"

Nick could remember how much the younger fox would drone on about how cool it would be to own a fast car like it, and how he had skipped out on many things in order to save every bit of money he could to afford it. Figuring this was that very car, Nick responded, saying: "Yeah, I remember. So, you finally got it?"

"Yep, paid for in cash," Stavanger proudly said.

"It must not be that good if you could afford it," came from Finnick, who was next to his van, walking back to the three other canids.

"Please, it's better than that rust bucket," Stavanger retorted, causing the anger to rise in the small fox. "Oh yeah? If it's so great, where is it?"

"I figured with those relatively large ears of yours, you would have heard me. I said that I didn't know if I would have been able to enter it," Stavanger shot back.

Nick, in an attempt to defuse the situation, asked: "Hey Fin, how is the van stacking up to the others?"

Not quelling his rage at all, Finnick answered the question without directly answering it: "Shut it, what do I owe you?"

Nick tried to be sympathetic, but failed with the huge grin that he couldn't hide. "We never got around to that part."

Finnick came to a quick resolution of the bet, saying: "Okay, first round of drinks is on me then." He said this in defeat, trying not to specifically look at anyone.

Stavanger took his opportunity to poke at the hot headed fox one more time. "I take it your precious van isn't as good as you thought."

Balling his paws in a fist, Finnick said back with a venomous tone: "I'll admit that it is too far behind to catch up. So with that said, can we get out of here or should I start to kick your ass now?"

"As much as I would like to see you try, I am more interested in the aforementioned drinks," Stavanger said back to the firecracker of a fox.

Finnick said "Wuss" under his breath as he returned to his van. "Alright, let's get out of here," he announced, getting into the driver's seat.

Walking to the passenger side of the van, Nick asked: "Where to? The game doesn't start for another couple hours."

Wolford chipped in, stating: "There is a bowling alley next to Buffalo Wild Bugs, so we can hang out there for a while before the game starts."

No one in the group disputed the notion, while they started piling into the van. After a short drive, they had arrived near the bowling alley that was just a block away from the sports bar.

The day had seemed to go well, until they encountered the operator of the alley. "No, you can't. We don't have anything that fits your paws to prevent any damage to our lanes."

Wolford was first to counter the antelope behind the counter: "How do you not have anything to fit any of us?"

"As I said before, I don't have anything for your kind! So you can't use our lanes," the antelope stated, sounding a little aggravated that this hasn't dispatched the group yet.

A quick glance through the building and it was easy to come to the conclusion that this establishment no longer accepted predators.

Wolford was new to this kind of discrimination, unlike the foxes, so he was the one to question it: "So, what changed? When did you stop catering to all mammals?"

The antelope raised his voice to bring the attention of all the mammals in the building to the four predatory animals at his desk: "You can't just force your way in here! I've told you already that we no longer have the appropriate equipment for you to use our lanes!"

Once all eyes were on the gathering of predators, Nick tugged on Wolford's arm, coaxing him back to the door: "There's no point in fighting it, let's go."

Once outside, Finnick stated to no one in general: "Wow, this is getting out of paw."

"Yeah, this is ridiculous," Stavanger said, in agreeance with him.

"What do you mean?" Wolford asked.

Finnick let out a sigh before he explained: " Well, I know for a fact that at one time, this place accepted all mammals. My guess is, after all these protests, this is just another business that is joining their ranks of prejudice, or fallen victim to the movement's actions."

"My vote is on the former of the two," Stavanger announced.

"That may not be the case," Nick interjected. "Some places may have been persuaded to employ or promote one mammal to another, and that one turns out to already be with this hate group, effectively converting the business from the inside."

Pondering this for a moment, the group started walking to the sports bar, even if they would arrive too soon.

"So, why are they all doing this?" Wolford asked.

Stavanger wanted to blame the rabbit officer, but instead waited to hear someone else's explanation. Nick, again, obliged by divulging his knowledge of the subject to the others: "I can only go so deep into this, because it is an ongoing investigation, but I think it is because of this group called the 'Luminous Crowns'."

"What? The newest competition for Mr. Big? Hah! You think this is because of them?" Finnick questioned.

It kind of ate at Nick that he couldn't tell his friends about how the mammal that was possibly organizing all these protests, was being harboured by the thug group. However, there was really nothing any of them would be able to do about it anyways, so he kept to his professional training and stayed silent, only saying: "Well, that's my only guess."

They continued their conversation, each giving their opinion on the matter during their short walk to the bar. Now sitting at a booth more appropriately sized for the wolf, they all decided to kill the time with drinks, while chatting amongst one another.

The talks circled around pranks they could have pulled on the speciest bowling alley. Wolford had also informed Nick about what had come of his latest successful prank on one of the officers in the locker room. "That was almost as good as the time you messed with the entire precinct's printers!"

Reminiscing over his past antics, Nick admitted: "Yeah, I felt kind of bad once I found out the tech guy had stayed up all night tearing apart the network, and re-routing the cables."

Stavanger, being intrigued, asked: "What'd you do?"

Nick exposed his little prank, saying: "All I did, was place random papers with computer codes printed on them in the feed trays. So, it looked like the system had some kind of networking error randomly throughout the building."

After a couple laughs, Wolford said how the technician later had to go see a chiropractor because of the amount of work he had done that night. This eventually lead the conversation to Stavanger describing the vixen he had encountered earlier that day, giving him a chance to shift the gossip to Nick's direction when he asked: "Now that I've said mine, Nicky, what's the deal with you and the bunny?"

Wolford stopped mid-drink when he heard this, his eyes and ears angled to the fox being questioned, as this was a hot topic in the precinct as well.

With the nature of Stavanger's previous topic, Nick knew exactly what he meant with the question, but opted to stall for time by playing dumb: "We work together, I thought you knew this, my apologies."

"Oh no you don't! You know exactly what I mean," Stavanger chastised, knowing Nick was dodging the question.

Backed into a corner, Nick had one last ditch effort to get them to leave the topic be: "Really, this is some high school level gossip here. Why does it even matter?"

After taking a sip of his drink, Stavanger responded: "Just like you said: It's gossip, and we are interested in it. Come on, we are all friends here. Why keep it such a secret?"

Nick let out a sigh before he took a swig of his drink and set it down. "Okay, because you must know..."

-  
At the precinct, Judy had gotten a hug stack of paperwork finished for both herself and Nick. Granted doing some of Nick's portion didn't sit right with her at first, because he doesn't get better at it if he doesn't do it, and the fact that it is frowned upon and in most cases unauthorized for one officer to complete the paperwork of another.

She had almost gotten through her targeted amount for the day, when a knock on her cubicle alerted her to an unknown visitor. She turned to look at who had made the noise and saw Fangmeyer. The tall tiger that prided herself for being self-sufficient in every aspect of her job, now had a look about her as if she was just caught with her paw in the cookie jar.

"What's up?" Judy asked as she acknowledged her fellow officer's presence.

The tiger fumbled over her words at first, showing her trepidation about requesting assistance, as she asked: "Could I ahh... Get some help from you?"

Judy spun around to face her guest as she answered: "Sure thing, what is it you need?"

Stepping inside the cubicle to shield herself from wondering eyes, she asked: "I have an investigation I need some help with, and you're the one I thought of to go to."

Flattered by the tiger's choice to come to her of all officers, she accepted: "Yeah, what can I do for you?"

"Well," Fangmeyer started. "I have this case, my first investigative case, and I just ran into some dead ends with my leads. I know you're not a detective, but could you take a look at everything here, and give me your perspective?"

It was true, Judy wasn't a detective. Sure, she had cracked the Night Howler case, but she wasn't instructed to investigate that. She was just told to find a single missing mammal, which most officers were already on the lookout for. It just so happened that she stumbled onto something bigger, and she wasn't even an officer at that point.

Eager to help her fellow officer, Judy asked: "Okay, what do you have so far?"

"Here is the case file," Fangmeyer said as she knelt beside the bunny and spread out the documents on the desk, which had the space to do so because of what Judy had accomplished today so far.

As Judy looked over each of the pages accompanied by photographs, Fangmeyer explained the situation: "So the body was found in the Rainforest District, partially immersed in the water."

Looking at the picture was sickening, as the body depicted was in quite a grotesque state of decay.

"It is believed that the body is a type of hyena, but it is hard to tell. It's obvious it has been charred before death, then possibly dumped in the water afterwards. The combination of that and the added fact that it is beginning to bloat from the decomposition, makes it hard to be certain. I am just going to have to wait for the DNA and dental work to come back," Fangmeyer explained.

Not really in the mood to keep looking at the hideous pictures, Judy turned away, focusing on the tiger as she asked: "Anyways, what is it you need from me?" Her voice giving away that she felt disturbed by the photos.

Realizing why the bunny seemed a little urgent to get through this as soon as possible, Fangmeyer got to the point with a summarized question: "Sorry about that Hopps, but my question is: What is your opinion of the postmortem interval with the extreme environments that the body has endured? I wanted to ask the forensics guys, but they are locked up tight, and I need to get hot on a trail now, rather than later."

Taking in a deep breath, Judy looked back to the case spread across her desk and sighed as she collected her hypothesis: "Well, this body has been through a lot. Like you said, the burning happened before the body was introduced to the water. Normally, the water would preserve the body, but the burns and sores sped it up. Also, seeing as how it was only halfway submerged in the water, I would split it down the middle, treating it as both a land and a submerged corpse analysis."

Fangmeyer could see that this stressed the bunny out, who was not used to such sights, so she decided to cut the questions after one last question. It being a rhetorical one that she used to sort of end the conversation: "The PMI information, do you know where I can get that?"

Using her paws on the edge of the table, Judy pulled her office chair down the desk to her computer as she said: "Yeah, it's on the share drive. I will load it up and send it to you."

"Okay, thanks," Fangmeyer had said as she collected her things off of the desk. "Sorry if this was out of the blue, and not in your specialty."

"Oh, no, it's totally fine. I am sorry I couldn't be of more help," Judy parried.

After going back and forth like that for a while, the two finally said their farewells, allowing Judy to finish up what she intended to do today. However, a familiar voice brought her attention back to the entrance of her cubicle, before she could get any further.

"I thought I heard your voice, and here I thought I wouldn't see you today."

This time when she looked, it was a fellow bunny. One Jack Savage, to be more precise.

"Hey, how's it goin'?" She greeted.

He leaned on the wall of the cubicle as he answered her: "Just stopping by to say 'Hi'. Also, to give you this, as I thought he would have been here with you. All it needs is a couple of his signatures."

He had handed her the forms his bureau needed to instate Stavanger as an informant.

"Wow, you were quick with this. Seems like you are very thorough with your work," Judy had pointed out.

"Seeing as how you come into work on your days off, I would say that is something else we have in common," he quipped.

Catching onto what he had said, Judy asked: "Something else? I'm not aware of the others."

"No? Oh, I thought I had pointed these out before," Jack said as his smile grew. "Well, where should I begin?"

A/N: As I said, I am going to continue in being delayed on releasing these chapters, sorry. Being back home has given me so many distractions to occupy my time. Also once again, DiaH has done it, making this chapter legible for everyone.

p.s. DiaH20 is in the works of his own story, so keep an eye out for it. If he can make my work worthy enough for you, imagine what he can do!


	11. Gun Theft

Chapter 11

Gun Theft

The early morning came all too soon for Stavanger. Feeling a bit more groggy than he expected he would have, he looked for something to blame that on, so he could have something to fixate his morning grouchiness on.

Sitting up from his couch, he grabbed the bottle labeled 'Noct-out' that rested on his coffee table. It was a sleep aid that naturally nocturnal mammals use to sleep at night. Reading the warning label, it stated to not take while under the influence of alcohol, as well as the fact that the effects last between six to eight hours. Given that it was hardly six hours ago since he had left the bar from the previous night, he put two and two together, and figured out the source of his more than usual groggy morning self.

He tossed the bottle back onto the table as he grumbled at his self inflicted misery. After gaining a little more of his consciousness, he checked his phone and read the couple of messages it had.

Summarizing everything, he came to the conclusion that Monica's group of cyber nerds got the metal vapor torch. However, to pay them back, he had to do something today in return, but couldn't figure it out from the meerkat's heavy use of code, slang, and short-paw text. It didn't matter, because she would personally show up to hand over the M.V.T., so he could ask her then.

Standing up from his couch, he could feel a slight pain emanating from his legs. Thankfully, he had that massage, otherwise he could have been in much worse shape.

He had time to pull out the gear he had stored in his garage for today's activities, while his coffee brewed. Once he had everything out, and was on his couch enjoying the dark caffeinated drink, he had time to fiddle with the things in his vicinity. He had just finished swapping out the lenses of his sunglasses to a vibrant blue and pink, for no apparent reason other than to mix things up. After that, he sat idly by waiting for when everyone would show up.

Keeping with tradition, Tim was the first to show up, trailed by Monica, then Nathan arrived shortly after. As the team inspected their equipment, Moe had held up a USB drive to Stavanger.

"What's this?" the fox had asked.

"This is your part of the bargain, remember?" she said, as she set a bag containing the vapor metal torch on the floor.

The discontented vulpine still didn't understand what she meant by this, and remembering her horrid texts from earlier didn't clue him in at all. "You're going to have to explain this, because I have no clue what you're on about. Especially if this has to do with whatever it was that you were trying to say last night."

"It's called talking in code. It's an amazement that you all haven't been caught yet. Anyways, this is something you have to do as retribution for the free torch thingy," she had explained, while taping the bag with her hind paw.

Taking the USB from her, Stavanger examined it as he asked: "So, what do I do with this?"

"All you have to do is plug it into the computer inside the cop car, let it sit for about 20 seconds, then, before you leave, pull it out of the computer. It's dummy proof, you can't mess this up." As she said this, she used her hind paws to push the bag on the floor towards the fox: "Let it do its thing, while you do yours. Just don't leave it behind."

Irritated by this unplanned variable, Stavanger impatiently asked: "What is it for?" He honestly didn't care: He just wanted to instigate a little quarrel, to vent the irritation she had caused him.

"It doesn't matter. Like I said, you have to do this for that." She parried, pointing to the bag on the floor.

Temuco cut in before things had escalated any further: "Hey! We are on the clock, and we have to be at the first location in the next 40 minutes. That's when Gerben will be there."

It wasn't until Tim pointed out that the Bear wasn't present that Stavanger noticed his absence: "Where is he?"

"He's at his job. I gave him the locations we will be at so he could adjust his route accordingly." Tim explained as he picked up a rope, along with a near empty bag he had been stuffing other miscellaneous gear into.

Moe glared at Stavanger as she passive-aggressively threatened him: "We are greatly invested in this. Do your part and things will continue to run smooth, and if anything happens to Gerben, you will have nowhere to hide."

Picking up the bag on the ground, he walked past her as he rolled his eyes, and sarcastically said a drawn out "sure."

Dumping the bag's contents on the counter next to Temuco, Stavanger explored the new device. In one paw, he held the black hilt, and in the other, one of the five cartridges. It was a simple system to figure out how to operate, making the research he did on it seem rather excessive at this point.

He placed all the components throughout his person in what pockets would fit them. Once he stashed the last cartridge, he looked up to Temuco. Both faintly nodded to each other, then Stavanger stepped away. He knew Temuco had the most to lose if something were to happen, so the feline would always have a moment to himself before any job to center his focus.

"Satisfied with your new toy?" Monica had rhetorically asked, not sensing the instant mood switch that had come over the two thieves.

Stavanger responded in a more impassive manor. "Yeah, anyways, this is the part where we go our separate ways for the time being. I will let you know when we're finished."

Stavanger had walked over and opened his door as a further indication that she should go. She accepted and silently walked out the door, only to turn around once outside. "Don't forget about the thumb drive!"

"I won't," Stavanger reassured as he closed the door.

The three thieves looked at each other, all knowing what each of them were feeling in this moment. Stavanger looked calm, but everyone knew he was nervous. Nathan couldn't have a care in the world right now, he seemed excited to do anything, and this was no different. Temuco was rigid, and reserved.

"Alright, we ready?" Stavanger had asked the group, when he picked up a spray bottle of scent masker and began to spritz it on himself, as well as a strong cologne to further mask himself, to which Tim and Nathan had agreed in their own way, and joined him in securing their identities through smell.

Some time later, Stavanger had assimilated into the crowd of a downtown street. Looking up the nearby building, he could see Nathan on the edge in his flight suit. He also had a band around his chest, and his hips. This was used to hold his excess skin against his body, in order to conceal the fact that he was a flying squirrel.

After Stavanger had gotten over the sight of the outfit again, he set his plan into motion. Pointing up at Nathan, he drew everyone's attention by asking out loud: "What's that!?"

Only a few mammals even bothered to look up, even fewer continued to attempt to see what he was talking about. "On the building, is that someone standing on the edge?" He shouted, drawing more eyes to the top of the building.

Everyone started to become suspicious of the fox, when they couldn't see anyone up there. The crowd started to lose interest, until a bobcat had confirmed the sighting. This started a cascade of questions as it drew more and more mammals to the area. Most mammals couldn't see the squirrel, but the predators had little issue finding him once they started looking.

Eventually, the emergency services were called about a possible suicide attempt in progress and were on the way. The plan was off to a brilliant start as Stavanger snaked away to the back of the massing mammals. Positioned a good distance away, he was able to watch as the first responders had shown up. Due to the restricted access of the area, the police car had parked in the distance and the officer inside made his way over to disperse the gathering of mammals.

This single officer was not enough to quell the rising masses. Another cruiser had appeared, along with an ambulance, the newest officer on scene got Stavanger's attention. He was a lion who, just like the first ZPD officer, parked his car and rushed to the crowd. This officer should have a weapon in his car that would be around the size that Mr. Big had wanted.

As he watched the officer leave the vehicle behind, Stavanger started to wrap his tail with a black pressure wrap. He didn't like the feeling or restrictiveness of this on his tail, but it was needed to mask his identity.

He started his journey to the target car, slipping on a pair of gloves as he surveyed the area. Nathan still had the crowd's full attention, as more onlookers joined to appease their own curiosity. Nearly reaching the cruiser, Stavanger pulled up his muzzle mask and donned his hood. Quickly entering the car with no holdups, he was now in the front of the cruiser. Astonished that this actually worked, he had no time for celebration.

Examining the computer system mounted between the two front seats, he found a port to plug in the thumb drive. After he did that, he turned around to be faced with the FC5 mounting system that held his prize.

While assembling his M.V.T., more first responders had shown up, forcing Stavanger to seek refuge on the floor of the cruiser. Given his species and the size of the cop car, this was done with little to no difficulty.

Once he figured the coast was clear, he quickly got back into position. Placing the M.V.T. against the locking bar of the FC5, he pressed his body against the device, closed his eyes, and held his breath as he ignited the M.V.T.

A defining screech penetrated the fox' sensitive ears in the enclosed environment. Simultaneously, bronze smoke erupted and had filled the cruiser, not allowing Stavanger to see the outcome of his attempt.

Giving the weapon a quick shake, he could feel it was free. He jostled it around a little more, until it fell free. The weight of the gun had overwhelmed the unexpecting fox as it fell forward, hitting the console. He lifted the back side of it and positioned it on the seat to allow a quick escape.

Before opening the door, he had remembered about Moe's thumb drive. Feeling around for it in the darkness behind closed eyes, he started to run out of breath. He had finally located it, but it was too late: Once he pulled the device out, he had to inhale. Doing this had started a coughing fit from breathing in a huge amount of dust and smoke.

Even with his inability to breath, he was able to pocket the USB and open the door to his escape. Mammals near the car, on their way to investigate what was going on, stopped in their tracks as a plume of smoke had risen from the car. Even more questions arose when they could hear someone uncontrollably coughing as he clamored out of the vehicle.

When Stavanger had emerged from the cloud being emitted from the cruiser, the spectators watched as he continued to cough and wipe at his eyes. After he had tried opening them, they instantly started to burn.

When he pulled out the weapon he was desperately trying to take, the few mammals watching were awestruck: They had no clue what was going on right now.

Stavanger took advantage of their baffled state while he still tried to clear his lungs and eyes of the M.V.T.'s discharge. He couldn't waste any time though. Reaching back into the cruiser, he yanked the weapon out by its stock, and rested it on his shoulder.

Dashing back out of the smoke, his breaths were still labored, and his vision blurred, as his eyes welled up with tears. This is when the civilians figured out that this wasn't a simple mishap.

Mixed reactions of the scene were shouted, while others were still in shock as to what they had just seen. Clearing the small gaggle of mammals in his vicinity, he had finally been able to breath normally, that is, as normal as someone running with a weapon sized for mammals that were easily twice his size.

Back on top of the building, Nathan had a great vantage point. He had watched all of Stavanger's moves, up to where a billow of smoke escaped from the cop car. Knowing his role Nathan knew what he had to do to ensure that the least amount of mammals would see this, and allow Stavanger an easy escape.

The small mammal started to scurry to one side of the building, getting a rise out of the crowd below. Nearing the end of the building, Nathan could see everyone but one officer had reacted to his movement. That lone officer seemed to be more concerned with what was going on in the vicinity of his cruiser.

Using this moment, Nathan slipped the two bands off and increased his speed, causing the gathering below to stir about, concerned with the rodent's actions. However, this didn't lure the feline officer's attention back, so Nathan continued off the edge of the building. The shouts and screams were enough to draw the lion's attention back to the main event.

He free fell for a little bit to gain speed and for dramatic effect. His audience was in a frenzy, then he spread his arms and legs, allowing his natural parachute to catch air and glide himself away. Everyone went crazy when they realized it was all a ruse.

The utter confusion that came from most of the first responders gave Nathan an advantage to increase the distance between them before he landed. However, the one lion officer now had no obligation to the rodents situation, and thus started to rush back to his vehicle.

Once he had arrived at his cruiser, he was met by a gathering of mammals around his car taking pictures as smoke continued to flow out of the vehicle.

Once the officer arrived a few good samaritans had gotten his attention by jumping around and pointing in the direction that the thief had gone. The feline officer quickly glimpsed into his car, and found the smoldering remains of the bracket system that once held one of his assigned weapons. Panic set in on the officer and he dashed in the direction where a pawful of mammals were directing him.

Stavanger had a huge lead on the now pursuing officer, however, he had slowed a bit, due to the bulky weapon resting on his shoulder that had been throwing off his balance. Though, he broke into a sprint after spotting what had been on his trail, when he looked back before he turned past the corner of a building.

The lion was significantly quicker in reaching the corner than the fox, but by the time he came around it, the thief had turned into an alley. Not losing any momentum, the law enforcer continued his pursuit. However, when he rounded the corner to the alleyway, he could do nothing as he was stunned by the sight of the thief running up the wall of the building.

Stavanger had slung the weapon over his shoulder, and tugged on the awaiting rope dangling from the rooftop of the office building. He had tucked the knot tied at the end of the rope under his arm to help him keep hold of the rope as he ascended. He would push off the wall with his hind paws one after another as he went up, giving him the appearance of running up the side of the structure.

Another knot had been tied on the rope just before the fox would crest the top. This was meant to add a bump of resistance as a signal to slow the rope's retraction. This was to grant Stavanger the ability to plant both hind paws on the crest of the building as a pivot point, so he could force himself back as the rope pulled him over the top, without pinching his paws between the rope and the building.

As he did this, he took a quick glance down at the flabbergasted officer below. As much as he wanted to continue to mock the police mammal, he was pulled onto the top of the building and out of sight.

As the relatively large weapon slung from the fox by it's two point sling, it banged around on the building's surfaces. Tim commented: "That thing is too big for you and this was too close for comfort."

While Temuco rolled up the rope, Stavanger began to undress into more casual clothing as he made his snarky response: "Don't tell me you are becoming a pussycat now."

"Shut up," was the only retort the feline had as he packed up the rope, and Stavanger's clothes into his bag. He started to break down the weapon to fit it when the sound of a trash truck coming to a stop below alerted them to their time schedule. "Quick, take a look," Temuco had said while throwing a mirror to the vulpine.

Taking the mirror, Stavanger sat at the edge of the roof and used the mirror to look below without exposing himself. Once he confirmed that the officer was not to be seen, he peeked over the side to get a better look. "Clear," he stated, throwing the mirror back to Tim.

"Okay," Tim acknowledged, picking up the bag and walking to the edge with the fox looking down into the alley. A bear had walked between the two buildings to fetch a dumpster to position it for his truck to empty it. Reaching one of the dumpsters, he opened the lid, stepped back, looked up to the two thieves and gave them an 'okay' gesture.

Receiving the signal, Temuco dropped the bag and watched as it landed perfectly in the cushion of trash. The bear below was fast at work after that, but Stavanger and Temuco didn't have time to watch the transaction in full. They had no idea where the officer had gone, so they had to move before they found out through unlucky means.

"You ready?" Tim asked his smaller counterpart.

"I hate this part," Stavanger answered with a sigh.

With a huge smile plastered on his face, Temuco stood up and said: "Good," while lifting the fox by his shirt and pants, "because you can't have all the fun."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Stavanger had objected, but to no avail before he was soaring through the air to the roof of an adjacent building. He landed with about as much grace as a sack of potatoes. Shooting a glare back to the previous building, Stavanger didn't have a chance to share his thoughts with the cougar as said feline had already turned around and was running for the exit.

As he struggled to stand up, Stavanger cursed under his breath at the fact that Temuco hadn't even watched long enough to see if he had made it across. Not dwelling on the matter, Stavanger proceeded to his exit. He didn't have to worry about running into the lion, because if the officer was still chasing him, they would be going to the other building with Temuco in it. Granted, this didn't mean he could take his time.

Temuco, on the other paw, had to play it safe. Even though the mammal the officer was chasing was much smaller, he didn't want to be caught coming from the last known location of a criminal. Even if he was empty handed, he wanted no reason for the officer suspect him. So, after he got off the roof, he went down two flights of stairs before he exited the stairwell and began to aimlessly walk around, trying to blend in with the other mammals in the office. There was no sign of the officer, so he stepped into an elevator and descended a couple more floors before he did the same thing as he did on the previous floor above.

Once again, when he felt it was safe, he went the rest of the way down and exited the office building. It was a short time later when the group had regathered near their next target, this time on the eastern side of downtown.

They met up with Gerben along the route and got their equipment back, minus the flash drive and weapon. After resetting everything, everyone headed out to their positions for the next hit.

Hours later, Chief Bogo had been occupied with another mundane day in the office, when Officer Higgins requested to speak to the police chief.

After a quick brief on the situation that brought Higgins into Bogo's office, the Chief delicately placed the papers he had been reviewing to the side, removed his glasses, and asked the reporting officer to repeat what he had just said.

Higgins wasn't a fearful mammal, but having to say this report to the Chief again had him struggling for breath. "Sir, I am reporting to you about the possibility that the two 10-56 alphas may have been linked due to the similarities between the jumpers, as well as the fact that at the first one, a weapon was stolen, and at the second, another two were taken, as well as one officer being placed in clinical care for injuries sustained trying to apprehend the suspect."

Chief Bogo, in a calmer manner than expected, asked: "We are talking about the mammal who faked jumping off of a building this morning, correct?"

"Yes sir," Higgins had answered quickly.

"To which an officer's weapon had been stolen, you said?" Bogo asked, maintaining his calm demeanour.

"Correct, as well as the two that have been-" Higgins tried to continue, but was cut off by the fury of the ZPD Chief.

"Then why am I just now hearing about this?!" he thundered, slamming his hoof with such force that, had it not been reinforced, the desk very well could have shattered under his power. "This is something I needed to know immediately! Not after it reoccurs! Had we known this earlier, then, maybe, there wouldn't be an additional two guns loose on the streets, and I wouldn't have an officer in the hospital!" Bogo finished, slamming both his hooves on the desk. Standing up, he kept one hoof in the dented surface of his desk while he raised the other, pointing it at the hippo. "You come back here with the first officer who lost his weapon, along with his supervisor, at 15:00 today."

Higgins tried to maintain a level voice while he spoke: "Yes sir." However, his body language betrayed him, showing the amount of fear that had penetrated his body at that moment.

"Now get out of my office." Bogo demanded as he sat in his chair, rubbing at his head that had just succumbed to a headache.

A couple hours before that, the thieves were all in similar positions as with their first attempt. The reason for this was because it was a practiced system, and because it was soon enough that the ZPD wouldn't have the time to implement any kind of corrections from earlier in the day.

Just like before, Stavanger pointed out Nathan from the streets to gain the attention of those around him. Once again, as things escalated, he stepped away and awaited for the first responders to come.

It was then, when they had encountered the discrepancy in the plan. When the first police officer had shown up, it was a polar bear. Stavanger would be far too small to effectively run with such a large gun that was sized for a bear.

Calling Tim on the phone, he asked if they could switch, as to not waste any time and allow more officers to show up. After a lot of cursing from an enraged feline about deviating from the plan, Temuco finally agreed. He continued to talk on the phone as he made his way to Stavanger's position, in order to have a plan formulated by the time he got there.

Once he did though, a second police car, along with a fire rescue vehicle, had shown up. He had to act as quickly as possible. Getting to Stavanger's position, he took the M.V.T. and a couple cartridges, then began to dress himself for his new position as Stavanger made his way to his new position down the street.

Temuco slipped on his gloves and facemask. He hated having it on, because it would press his ears to his head, which just felt awkward and annoying. In addition to that, he had tucked his tail into his pants to further disguise himself. This all felt odd for the cat, as it now ever so slightly put him off balance. All this culminated to a very grumpy cat, who just wanted this to be over with.

Not going for the tactful route like Stavanger, Tim broke out strong and fast, running straight at the target car. Forcefully opening the door and going to work, he was significantly faster than his vulpine partner, especially given the fact that he didn't need to worry about Monica's USB drive.

Learning from Stavanger's mistakes with the first use of the M.V.T. Temuco took a deep breath before he activated the device on the mounting brackets of this vehicle's locking bar.

After the bar had been disintegrated, he kept with his heavy-handedness and ripped the weapon free of its confines. Exiting the vehicle, he began to run, but before he passed another ZPD cruiser, he took the opportunity to snag another gun.

Getting in this car, it seemed sized for a mammal a little smaller than himself, and the rifle in this one's gun rack reflected the same suggestion.

Swapping out the M.V.T.'s cartridges, he made quick work of the second one as well. This time when he exited the vehicle, he looked back to the crowd gathered below the building. That's when he made eye contact with an arctic wolf in a ZPD uniform.

Sensing what was to come, Temuco turned around with the two newly acquired weapons and used his distance between the officer to his advantage.

The ZPD wolf caught on to what was happening and sprung into action, giving chase to the thief.

Temuco, being a cougar, would normally be able to easily outrun a wolf, however, his balance was thrown off by the inconsistent weight of the weapons he held in each paw. Incorporate that with the fact that his tail couldn't counter this imbalance, as well as the fact of generally slowing down because of this, it meant that he couldn't pull away from the pursuing wolf.

The chase sustained its pace for a couple blocks, the uneven distribution of the weight had started to slightly annoy the feline's body, so he chose to lessen his speed. He did this for two reasons: To dampen the pain that had started to develop from the awkward run he was doing, and to purposely allow the wolf to draw nearer.

This would contradict his more rational thinking when outside such a situation, but what he had planned now seemed to be the only thing he could do without compromising the job, or the rest of the team.

Coincidentally, when he thought about the team, he spotted Stavanger down the way on the other side of the road, waiting for his signal, but appeared startled at the sight of Tim carrying two weapons and with a police officer hot on his tail. Stavanger looked on perplexed as ever, as Temuco continued with his own improvised plan.

Reaching the marked ally, Tim turned into it with the police mammal hardly seconds behind him, drawing the officer deep into the alley. He could hear the echoes of the canine's radio, as other officers corresponded with each other about the current happenings of the city.

Nearing a dumpster, Temuco saw his chance to end this with ease. Seizing the opportunity, Tim flung the rifles to the ground near the dumpster, both coming to a rest against the fence that blocked off the rest of the alley. He then leaped up towards the top of garbage container.

The arctic wolf figured the thief was ditching his loot for a better chance to escape by using the dumpster as a step up, to gain the necessary height to clear the fence. However, the criminal's next move was so sudden and unexpected, that the officer had no time to react.

Rather than continuing his path, Temuco had pushed off the dumpster, back in the direction of his pursuer. Spinning mid air, the feline made great use of his agility and his newly directed momentum to have his knee make contact with the wolf's muzzle.

Both mammals were sent to the ground, the officer because he had just been hit with a large force to the face, and Temuco, because his tail was still tucked into his pants, so he could not make any use of it to help balance himself.

The officer staggered to his feet as tears accumulated in his eyes and blood ran from his nose. Temuco was quick to get up, as he didn't want to risk getting into a grappling match with an officer: He knew that they were trained to subdue and not fight, so he had to keep his distance in this scrimmage.

He also wanted to end this as soon as he could, so the officer would have the least amount of time to study his features while up-close. He reached into the waistband of his sweat pants, and pulled out his two batons that were strapped to his suit underneath. Giving them a quick twirl to both intimidate, and to get a better grip on them, he readied himself for the fight to come.

The wolf didn't seem phased, though it could have been because of the blurred vision from the tears, but Tim wasn't going to wait and find out, nor did he wait for the officer to make the first move.

Charging forward, it was easy to thrash the officer's body with a flurry of hits. Temuco had felt pity for the defenceless mammal, but at this point, it was either himself or the wolf.

Midway through his pummeling, a large truck had pulled into the alleyway, distracting the feline. When a fox had run alongside the vehicle, Tim had realized who it was.

In this moment of calm, Tim had a moment of clarity where he listened to the officer's radio. Over the whimpers of the pained wolf, he could hear codes, directions, and locations being relayed. What got his attention was a name of a street: It was the very street they had run down before going into the alley.

"Hey! We've gotta go!" Temuco had shouted. He then pointed to Stavanger to clarify that he was instructing the fox: "Get the guns!" He then shouted at the bear that had started to exit the truck: "Bring the tape from the bag, now!"

As the other two had scurried around, Tim had used his batons to push and hit the officer in the direction that he wanted. "Get moving, over there, and don't you dare look back at me," he instructed as he continued to harshly guide the wounded officer to a staircase.

Once Gerben had handed the roll of duct tape to the feline, Tim started to wrap the wolf's eyes and ears, then his paws on the other side of the stairs' handrails, trapping the officer in that location.

Gerben had placed a dumpster in front of his garbage truck and slapped the side of it, signalling the other two to get in. Temuco did so with haste, while Stavanger protested it. Unfortunately for the fox, Temuco was not having it, and yanked him off the ground and into their new trash transport. He had a pang of guilt when he did this, because he had briefly looked back and observed the sorry state he had left the helpless officer in. That officer had done nothing wrong, yet was dealt with in a cruel, and remorseless manor.

Gerben activated the trucks front loading forks, lifting the trash reciprocal into the air. During their journey up, Tim and Stavanger dug their way down as low as they could into the trash, so when the truck flipped the dumpster to empty its contents into the back, they would be towards the top of the pile.

Once they had been transferred to the truck, they watched as the truck removed the dumpster from their sight and waited for Gerben to drive off after resetting the reciprocal as if he had witnessed nothing here.

After pulling out onto the road and continuing down his route, it was apparent that the police were on the lookout for the thief and a missing ZPD officer.

Riding along wasn't the smoothest or most luxurious rides they have had, but it got them in the clear. They had disembarked from their impromptu taxi and sought refuge in Temuco's house, as it was the closest at the time.

A few hours had past and during this time, they had changed into more comfortable clothing and gotten on their phones to check in on Gerben, Nathan, and Monica. All of them were fine.

Gerben was going to finish his shift and go home as if nothing had happened, Nathan would finish his day in a similar fashion by simply returning home and laying low. Monica, on the other paw, wanted to stop by as soon as she could, to pick up her flash drive that Temuco had in his bag.

She had arrived some time later, and this time, she had changed her outfit, more or less for the reason that she would have been more active and awake during this time, but what threw them off were the bright colors.

It wasn't only the fact that they were trying to lay low while she became a beacon, but what struck Stavanger as odd, was the fact that the outfit had the same color scheme as his sunglasses. Moreover, she had acted a little more energetic and friendly. The two males looked at each other silently, speaking through made up signing, while she kept rambling on about the nice furnishings of Temuco's home. They had come to the conclusion that she must've had a bit of a unique celebration of her own when she had found out that today's job had worked.

They had convinced her she had to go home, now that she had her thumb drive, so Tim and Stavanger could continue on with their other business, to which she had requested they at least walk her out like gentlemammals.

After Stavanger had humored her pleading, he was even more surprised when she had excitedly climbed up and onto his shoulders. Just going along with it, Stavanger had walked to the front door of Tim's home and stepped outside.

The overly excited meerkat was an interesting sight and it left the two baffled as to what she could be on in order to have such a change in attitude towards Stavanger of all mammals.

Both Tim and Stavanger had walked her down the driveway, Tim was busy keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, while Stavanger took the opportunity to take a selfie with the exuberant meerkat, to possibly use as blackmail later on if needed. He did, however, find it cute that she chose this kind of outfit, boosting his own ego as he continued to hypothesize that she did it because of his sunglasses.

Once they had finally gotten the boisterous female to release Stavanger's 'soft and warm' hood, they had gotten her to start her own journey home.

Turning back to walk inside, the two looked at each other and laughed at the ridiculousness that they had just witnessed, but once inside, it was back to business.

"You ready to make the delivery?" Stavanger had asked.

Softly nodding his head with his lips pressed together, Tim answered: "Yeah, let's do it."

 **A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the huge delay, this seems to be the norm as of late because of my routine with everything. Can't promise I will be able to fix that, but I will try.**

 **Anyways, as always DiaH20 has put in more time than I would like to admit fixing this chapter, hopefully with some time I will learn from my mistakes. BUT just maybe. XD**


	12. Night out

Being out of the arctic wind was a blessing, however, the evening's cold chill permeated through the unheated mansion. That wasn't what mainly occupied Stavanger's mind; it were his own nervous thoughts as he walked through the corridors filled with antiques of all kinds with a bag hung from his shoulder.

It was easy enough for Temuco to follow with a relatively sized bag for himself, thus the smaller vulpine should have nothing to worry about. Stavanger just figured it's better to be safe than sorry. After all, this was Mr. Big's home, so any form of negligence would not go unpunished.

Halting in Mr. Big's infamous office, Tim and Stavanger awaited the arrival of the shrew, under the watchful eye of the polar bear that had escorted them through the estate. The two guests were fixated by the howling melody of the wind in the unlit fireplace as they waited.

Finally, the entourage of polar bears that Mr Big had reserved for himself had entered the room, signalling his arrival. The great Koslov took his seat, then slid his paws to the edge of the desk, opening them up to reveal the little crime boss.

Mr. Big had on his typical, unamused expression. The room stood still as each party waited for the other to start the conversation. Stavanger, unable to hold out in these conditions, broke first in a worried rush. He kneeled down, unzipping the bag he had, to expose what was inside, as he stated, "Okay, so it's not exactly what you wanted, but I feel like these will be just as effective, if not more. They are state of the art, and have proven their worth."

When he finished his nervous ramble, he pulled the bag open, showing the weapon in a disassembled form. He looked up to the shrew with a nervous grin, but nothing was said.

Stavanger then looked back to his feline partner and said through a gritted smile, "Go ahead, show him your bag."

Temuco rolled his eyes as he set the bag down and opened it as instructed, but he did not show the same trepidation as the vulpine. That came to a quick end when, after he had opened the bag half way, a rodent leapt out, yelling: "Roar!"

Startling Temuco, he recoiled back to avoid the small mammal that jumped out of the bag. His response to these antics was not of fear, but of anger. "Damn it Nathan, I told you not to do that!"

Stavanger's ears were pinned to the back of his head to add to the ghastly grimace he had as a result of the action of his colleagues. His eyes shifted around the room seeing all the polar bears reactions to this. They didn't move from their spots, but their posture definitely hinted that the situation could have escalated to a much more grim outcome. "What the fuck?" Stavanger seethed back at his 'team'.

"I told him," Temuco whispered back, with his words heated by his anger for Nathan's disregard of the situation.

Nathan's innocent face scanned the room, still not understanding why his two friends were so uptight in this moment. Even with them being surrounded by a gang of massive bears, Nathan showed no fear as he asked: "What? I was just playin' around."

"Really?" Stavanger growled, while at the same time Temuco stated: "There is a time and place for this; now is neither."

Still oblivious to his environment, Nathan stated, "Everyone here needs to lighten up."

Stavanger was about to lose it on the rodent, but before he could say anything, Mr. Big finally said his first words of their meeting tonight. "Perhaps coming at such an inconvenient time isn't enough for you, now you wish to waste my time with this... What is this?"

"Nothing, it's nothing. I am extremely sorry about this slight hiccup. Please accept my apology and let us continue where we were." Stavanger tried to mend the already fragile transaction.

Nathan on the other hand still didn't catch on to any of the social cues as to where he was and felt offended at seeing Stavanger act in such a submissive manner. So, he tried to rally his friend, and attempt to intimidate the others in the room. "Stav? Why are you so scared of these guys? They're no match for us, we have Tim and you! We can take-"

The small mammal was finally silenced when the large paws of the cougar entrapped him. Standing back up, Temuco whispered to the rodent, "Calm down."

Now for the second time Mr. Big had spoken up and once again it was not about the current exchange: "I have to give it to you, you have spunk kid, but you should listen to your friends."

Stavanger shook his head as he silently sighed, "Again, sorry about that. Now, shall we continue?"

Everything proceeded without any more intrusions. That was until Stavanger's phone started to go off. At first, he was able to quickly silence the call; it were the succeeding text messages that started to annoy everyone.

A hint of irritation laced Mr. Big's voice as he spoke after the third message was received by Stavanger's phone: "Perhaps I should consider having a more professional group for my next task."

Without a second thought, Stavanger spat out his refusal to this notion. "No no no no, we can do it." Not even realizing it, he had just pulled his team into a job without knowing any details.

On the other side of the troublesome cellphone was an unamused Nick. He had tried to call Stavanger and after it was sent to voicemail, he sent a couple text messages talking about how he had wanted to take Judy out on the town tomorrow night, to get her mind off of work. The invitation was extended to Stavanger, because Nick felt like humoring Stavanger's guardian position over himself and Judy.

He set the phone down and continued making his dinner, which, so far, consisted of boiled spinach. This was because it was easy, and at the moment, Judy was out getting groceries, because the home currently had a limited supply.

What Nick hadn't noticed after his attempted call, was that he was no longer alone. The grocery getter had returned and had the jump on him. As he faced the stove top, he took a rag and wiped it, and the counter clean.

Two small paws grabbed at his sides, accompanied with a "Boo!".

Nick jumped to the side, his paws shooting out in all directions, while the rag he had fell to the floor. Finally seeing the frightening fiend who snuck up on him, his brief fear was replenished with solace at the sight of his favorite bunny. "Well, you look like you're feeling chipper."

Walking back to the front door to retrieve the bags that would have given her away, she explained her change of mood: "I came home to the lovely smell of food after starving in the store. Plus, seeing as how you were so preoccupied, I had to take advantage of the easy opportunity."

"Hmm, sly bunny," Nick chimed with the duo's signature remark about each other.

"Dumb fox." Judy had finished it as usual.

Not wanting to squander the moment of Judy's happiness, Nick asked her to set the table, so they could enjoy his quickly made meal.

She did as asked, while simultaneously putting the groceries that needed to be chilled in the refrigerator. Nick on the other paw set the hot pot to the side then he began to serve plates for two.

He was about to take them to the table when he noticed Judy zoning out, staring into the fridge with a glum look upon her face. He had heard about what had happened to Grizzoli at work, and he himself had to muster up his stronger side, so he could be strong for the little bunny who wore her heart on her sleeve.

He walked over and placed a paw on her shoulder and played it off like he didn't know what was bothering her with a joke: "Yep, poor Mr Lettuce Head. He looks all kinds of lonely in there."

Judy snapped out of her daze and looked up to Nick in confusion, "wha-?" Then looked back in the fridge to see what he was talking about.

She let out a single chuckle, almost a pity laugh at his 'joke'. She put the last item next to the so-called 'Mr. Lettuce Head' and walked toward the table as she explained: "No, that's not it." While she walked to the table, Nick went back to the stove and finished distributing the spinach to their plates.

"It's what happened to Grizzoli," Judy had said, now next to Nick in the kitchen. He inwardly thought that he needed to put a bell on her.

She was holding the white microfiber rag that Nick had dropped when he was scared. The look on her face now had him worried.

"Carrots," Nick had soothed as he approached her, "he is fine now. He is going to be okay."

"But we could have stopped it; we could have been there if the Chief hadn't given us those days off." Judy continued on as Nick lowered himself to her level. "Then I think: If we had been there, then that could have been you." Tears began to well up in her eyes as she spoke. "Then it would be all my fault, because I brought you into this lifestyle, and I really shouldn't have if I wanted to keep-"

"Shhh." Nick hushed her mid sentence to end her rambling. Then he took the rag she had, and tossed it up on the counter, freeing herself up for the comforting hug he gave her next. She sunk into his embrace and wrapped her arms as far around him as she could.

Nick whispered to her as he held her. "I am glad you brought me into this, as it's a much better life than I had before, and as long as we're together, nothing like that will ever happen to us."

They held each other for an unknown amount of time, but for the duration of it, Nick's mind was in a scramble as to why Judy was so worried about him. Sure, they had a strong bond to one another, but was Judy developing more feelings for him? What would he do if she was? He wasn't opposed to the idea and at the same time he actually wanted that to be true.

The embrace finally loosened and the two were left looking at one another. Nick with a warm smile, looking down at Judy, whose smile was accompanied by small patches of wet fur under her eyes.

Nick shook his head: "You bunnies, so emotional."

"Oh shush," Judy said as she playfully punched him.

Nick stepped back chuckling, and rubbing the now sore spot on his arm from the bunny who seemed to never know how to pull her punches.

After a moment of staring at one another, Judy's nose twitched a bit as she saw smoke rising from the stove top. "What else are you cooking? Because I think it's burning."

"Naw, I took the spinach off." Though when he focused on his sense of smell, he finally realized there was an odd odor in the air.

Spinning around, he found the source of the smoke and the smell. It was the rag that he had thrown on top of the counter. It just so happened to land on the portion of the glass top that he had forgotten to turn off.

"Shit shit shit!" He panicked, rushing to pick it up off the electric stove. Lifting it revealed that the damage had already been done, when part of the cloth had melted and was now stuck to the smooth black surface.

He swiftly swiped a spatula and separated the melted fabric that was still attached to the rag in his paw and the melted mess below it. Setting the rag in the sink, he then turned off the stove top to decrease its heat.

Judy looked at the remains of the rag in the sink and asked: "So was that the Rag Pancake Special?"

"Oh har har," Nick responded, now moving over to the sink to get some water. He put it on the stove's surface to make the burned mess solidify and thus, easier to scrape off.

Judy continued her playful assault on his abilities in the kitchen. "I'm serious: If that's how you make pancakes, then should I be worried about what else you are serving me tonight?"

"You've tried my pancakes before; this is just a mishap," he retorted, not even denying the fact that this was not an attempt at pancakes.

"Sure, or maybe those were just beginner's luck," she quipped back at him, keeping her playful mood going.

"Begin... Really? You think it was luck that made that deliciousness?" Nick had asked back, continuing to play her little game.

It all ended with a couple laughs and a couple more quips here and there during dinner, keeping the rest of their night in high spirits.

Meanwhile, Stavanger had just been dropped off at his garage by Temuco. The rest of his evening wasn't as pleasant as he had expected it would be. Tim was actually quite annoyed at the fact that the fox' carelessness had just hustled themselves into a job they were not fit to do.

Before the cougar drove off, he shouted to the fox with a spiteful tone. "You better have a fucking plan to get us out of this shit, that doesn't involve me dying!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." He had irritatedly answered, after having to listen to the ranting feline in the car all the way back.

Entering in his home, he plopped onto his couch, checking his phone of his messages and missed calls. He got the gist of what Nick had wanted to do with tomorrow's evening.

Halfway through replying, he had gotten another call. "For fuck's sake, can I have a minute!?" He shouted before reading the number calling him. It was a number he hadn't recognized, so he assumed it was a telemarketer and let it ring.

Moments later, after he had sent his message, the same number called again. This time, Stavanger was convinced it wasn't any kind of marketing call, but an actual someone on the other end.

Still unsure of the caller, he answered the phone but said nothing. Allowing the caller to expose themself, before he did himself.

A gruff voice came from the phone. "Hello? Is this Stavanger?

Hesitantly, he answered with a questioning tone: "Yes?"

The voice on the other end sounded relieved as it asked it's next question: "Can I get help from you?"

"Wait, who is this?" Stavanger answered with a question of his own.

"Gerben" was the only reply, to which Stavanger struggled to remember who that was. The long pause was an indication for more clarification: "Gerben Björn… Magnus, bear."

Then, it hit him as to who he was talking to. At that moment, the first question was how the bear got his phone number, but that would be a question for the nerdy computer duo later. Right now, a wave of anxiety washed over the fox when he realized that an accomplice was asking for help, shortly after they had robbed the police of all groups. Worst case scenarios flashed through his head as he asked, "What d'you need?"

Gerben eagerly answered: "I see you have a car when I was in your home. Can you pick up Kimberly fast?"

Again not knowing the named individual, Stavanger had a query about the request. "Okay... Who, and why?"

The response from the phone was: "You remember the arctic fox at the spa? That is Kim, she needs help."

Recollecting the vixen that had treated him so well at the spa had Stavanger gain a little sympathy for the mammal in need, however, he still didn't have the full picture, so he asked for clarification. "So, why does she need me to pick her up?" adding emphasis on the 'me' to elucidate why it had to be him specifically."

"Please, she is in danger; you need to pick her up fast. I can not, I need you to, because you live close to where she is," the bear had pleaded.

"Alright," Stavanger had accepted as he walked over to the cover of his car. "Where is she?"

"She said she is in the Palm District."

Stavanger began to untie the cover on his car when he asked, "and the emergency is..?"

"Some mammals are following her and want to hurt her, please hurry," Gerben had hastily said.

Realizing that there was an imminent danger, Stavanger paused for a moment, then asked for clarification. "What, what do you mean?"

The bear rushed through his explanation as best as he could. "The hate group is protesting and some are following her, she is alone."

"Oh," is all he could say as he got a chill down his spine finally figuring out what was going on. Stavanger didn't pay that specific segment of the news any attention, because he didn't care, but he knew enough to know that they were against predators. So, with them following a fox around, he didn't have to guess what their intentions were. He asked for her number and wrote it down before ending the call.

Now, Stavanger seemed to move with more urgency. Ripping the cover off of his car, he climbed in the vehicle that was sized for larger mammals than himself. His driver side of the vehicle had a specific conversion kit to allow him to drive such a vehicle. Sitting in the heightened seat, he reached up and hit a button that activated his garage door. Waiting for the door to lift, he reached forward and pressed another button that woke the car from its hibernation. The electronics snapped to life as the external lights flicked on. Taking in a moment of nostalgia with the car's scent filling his nostrils, Stavanger finally activated the car's engine. The headlights were lit in a blazing white, whilst surrounded by halo day running lights. Simultaneously, its engine came to life, filling his ears with pure joy listening to its exhaust echo in the garage.

Putting the car into gear, satisfaction ran through his veins as the car rolled forward out of the garage. Clearing the door he pressed the same button that opened it, in order to close it before he sped off into the night.

After a while of some rather frantic driving, all while listening to his favorite hits on his playlist, Stavanger finally turned down the volume and began to drive like a sane mammal. This was only to better facilitate the phone call he was making to the vixen in distress.

However, his attempt was met with a busy signal on the other end. Setting his cell phone down, he contemplated anything that could be happening to her, as well as where she could possibly be. The latter, because he was nearing the district he was told she would be in, so he needed an update on where to go.

Stavanger drove a couple more blocks before his phone rang. As he answered it in his usual manner of silence, a voice again started with his name in the form of a question. This voice, however, was feminine, leading the fox to assume who was speaking.

"Kimberly?" he asked anyway, not make a fool of himself.

"Yeah, where are you?" she asked with a hushed voice

He looked out his side window as his car entered onto a bridge and told her where he was. "Just now passing over Riverside Plaza. What about you; how do I find you?"

"I am in the Basic Kneads Pizza that's next to the cinema on Vinoy Avenue," the vixen answered.

Knowing the location, Stavanger changed his course and began driving further south-west into Sahara Square. "Okay, I know where you are. I will be there in a bit."

Before he could make any attempt at ending the conversation, a demur was heard on the line in the form of a plea: "Wait… Don't hang up. Please stay on, at least till you're here."

Against his own reluctance, Stavanger fulfilled her request and kept the call going as he drew nearer to the pizzaria. Using this time to get the big picture, Stavanger asked what had gotten her so frightened. She told him about how she passed a group of protesting mammals on her way to the train station after work and a small group of them broke off. They had followed her, even when she would frequently change directions to make sure that they were in fact following her. Stavanger sympathised with her, knowing how scary it can be in such a large, unfamiliar city. Then the call was mostly quite for the remainder of the drive.

Having an odd, awkward sensation, Stavanger loosely formed a joke as the pizza restaurant came into view: "So this was your plan? Dinner here and then pop next door for a movie? A bit cliche, don't you think?"

Kimberly's first reaction was a mix of surprise and confusion and she just muttered half a word: "Wha-?"

Not wanting to go through the embarrassment of explaining what he said, he diverted from his original phrase and told her that he was pulling into the parking lot, and that he was in the blue car.

Sitting in the car, he looked around for anyone of suspicion outside the establishment, but the only mammal in the vicinity he could spot was the arctic vixen walking out into the parking lot, looking around in a lost state of mind. She spoke into the still ongoing call. "Where are you?" Unbeknownst to her, he was right next to her. She was looking for a vehicle more sized for a fox, not something like a wolf.

Rather than talking into the phone, Stavanger lowered his passenger side window and spoke up. "Right here!"

He unlocked his doors and watched as her pair of ears scooted closer to his door before it was finally opened, revealing the vixens astonished expression. "This is your car?"

It had always kind of been the status quo for smaller zootopians to buy things meant for mammals of a larger size, and this particular purchase was Stavanger's crowning achievement; something he was especially proud of. Seeing her reaction to the vehicle gave him a warm feeling on the inside and boosted his confidence for all the wrong reasons. With as much poise as a thief could have, Stavanger smugly answered, "Heh, yeah, it's my pride and joy."

Kimberly settled into the oversized passenger seat and fastened her seat belt. The drive to her home was filled with thanks, and sporadic conversation, mostly from her side of the car. Stavanger would peep a couple glimpses of the vixen in his car as they drove, and it wasn't until they neared her apartment that he said what was on his mind. "So, I am going out with some friends tomorrow night in Sahara Square. If you're available…, then you are more than welcome to join us."

He felt sleazy for asking her right after helping her as if he was more saying it was his reward for helping, but this was not the case, and his worry was lifted when she answered with a question of her own. "What time?" showing her own interest with little hesitation.

"Ahhh, around this time tomorrow." Stavanger feigned knowing the actual time, then told her he would let her know if there would be any changes, meaning that when he actually found out the time, he would tell her.

Small talk was the extent of the conversations the rest of the way to Kimberly's apartment complex. After dropping her off, Stavanger sped off, allowing his spirited driving side to take the wheel as a kind of showboating, like he usually did with his car.

Being able to take a break from life, the following morning was a godsend to Stavanger. Nothing was really accomplished this day, other than notifying Nick of his plus-one to the party, whom he was now going to meet up with.

Stavanger was dressed in his normal pants, but he fancied himself up by putting on a white shirt and a black button-up over it. This couldn't quell his anxious feeling sitting on the train, after breaking it to the vixen that he was not driving there. He could feel the disappointment through the text messages, or at least he perceived it that way, seeing as how deciphering emotions through these messages could be very misleading at times.

This, however, was not the case when they met up together at the Dry River Station. He was warmly greeted by the arctic fox who had dawned a pink sundress held tight by a fabric belt of matching color. It was a simplistic outfit, but she brought out its untapped elegance with it hugging her frame tightly.

After the initial greeting and Stavanger making a comment about how he now felt underdressed, the two continued on to their final destination of the Oasis Hotel. This was not the actual place they were going however; it was just an easy location to find Nick and Judy. Finding those two was too easy as Nick was still wearing one of his tacky button-up shirts, while Judy had on a purple princess V-neck with a half skirt on below it.

Once everyone met up, it was quick for them to split into their social groups: Nick and Stavanger together, while Kim and Judy would gossip and get to know each other. Amongst all the stories shared in the various places they decided to frequent that evening, it really hit off between the girls when Judy told Kimberly about Nick's accidental baking of the rag. In fact, Nick couldn't help but notice he was the center of a majority of her conversations.

He wanted to point this out with a snarky remark, but didn't want to draw the bunny officer's attention to his and Stavanger's doings, which were not part of any form of morality. Nick's caution was all for naught at this point, because Judy had already caught on to the odd motions, and the new phrases that were not characteristic of the ex-con fox. Though, she thought to herself that the 'ex'-portion of this title should be removed, as it would seem he went back to his hustling ways with his protégé, pulling all kinds of tricks at the card tables throughout the night.

The winnings were just a plentiful as the drinks, especially when the group finally relocated to the renowned 'Sun Casino', where the finale of the group's time out was when Nick was given a complimentary room to stay in. No doubt that this room would be charged using his winnings, and this would allow him to stay longer, giving the casino more time to get its money back.

After this, it seemed time to turn in anyways, because Stavanger's choice of drinks had left him in an impaired state and he seemed to become increasingly distracted with the vixen in the group, who had been showing the same amount of interest in him. Nick wasn't that far behind in the way of being distracted either. Eyeing Judy all night had cost him a couple hands and this display did not go unnoticed amongst the mammals, no matter how hard he tried to play it off.

With everyone's apparent new found interest, they called it a night, Nick gifted Stavanger the room he was given with a coy smile, wishing the vulpine the best of luck. He opted to go home, as he had a better grasp on his senses than the younger fox had, and he wanted the comfort of his own place. So, the group split after some reluctant goodbyes, and headed in opposite directions: Nick and Judy to the parking lot, while Stavanger and Kimberly walked around the casino, trying to find the exit that would lead to the hotel.

On the way through the labyrinth of slot machines and game tables, the two vulpines came across another fox, one whom Kimberly actually recognized. "Chris?"

Stavanger looked over to this arctic fox, who was slouching over a table with a Caipirinha in his paw and a napkin in the other, no doubt to clean up the little spill that was on his blue collared button-up shirt. Hearing the name, this white fox flexed his ears in the direction of her voice, then uneasily looked up at the pair. The expression on his face explained that he was not fully aware of who was speaking.

Kimberly examined him a little more, given she'd had a good amount to drink as well. She began to second-guess her assumption while asking the lone fox again: "Christopher?"

Using his complete first name must have jogged his memory somehow, because now, through squinted eyes, he was able to make out who she was as well. "K...Kim?"

"Oh my god, I haven't seen you in forever!" she responded with a joyous tone, one that made Stavanger begin to wonder if this was some kind of ex-boyfriend of hers.

Finally coming to a realization of who she was seemed to make the fox uneasy as he placed a paw over his face: "Sorry that you... uugh... have to see me in this..." he said, with his words saturated in alcohol and coated with his accent.

It wasn't the best of impressions, but due to the fact that she had not seen him for some time, she couldn't care less. A bit delayed, she introduced the two tods to each other: "Stavanger, this is Christopher Fuchs, or wait, sorry, it's 'Snö' now right?"

"Yes," the arctic fox replied weakly, to which the red fox thought that it was odd for a male to change his last name, and after a second glance, he didn't notice a wedding ring, so he was stumped for a reason of the name change. That was until Kim filled him in on it, without knowing this is what was plaguing his mind.

"Yeah, Mr. Snö and I did the process of coming to Zootopia together. He was the only other fox in our group, so it was only natural that we became friends. He is an amazing artist," she then switched her attention back to the arctic fox, "by the way, how's that going?"

Splaying out a smile that could be seen through by anybody, he said, "It wents totally fine, super fine, selling arts here at the auction. How about you?"

"Good, good, oh, by the way, Chris, this is Stavanger; he's who I am here with," Kim said, finishing the other half of the introduction, while Stavanger gave a small wave to the new found fox.

The artistic fox gave his greeting, then asked to be excused for a moment to get a coffee from a nearby bar. It was at this moment that it was suggested that they keep in touch and meet up another time, because it seemed as though all three vulpines were not in the condition to start a full-blown conversation.

Chris agreed to this as he stumbled away in the direction of the nearest bistro. At the same time, Stavanger and Kimberly continued out the building and towards the adjacent building that was the casino's hotel, to sign in.

It must've been a combination of dumb luck and the alcohol, but, on the way to the front, a small stumble threw the arctic vixen off balance enough to have her grab onto Stavanger's arm. That not only saved her from a potential fall, but also broke the physical barrier between the two, especially when she didn't let go of it as they walked inside, or when they received their key with the voucher given to them by Nick.

Making their way to the elevator, they were joined by another duo of bison, who thankfully exited after a couple floors, giving the two foxes privacy in the lift for the rest of the ride up. Both used the opportunity to get closer to each other, even more than before.

Reaching the floor, the two calmly walked to their room's door in unison, entered it, and once the door closed, there was only a brief moment of peace as they both took in the size of this room. Many features of its exquisite decorations were missed by them as the two started to shuffle closer to each other, staring deeply into each other's eyes in the still dark room.

The thrill of how close they were together, and the dulling agent of the alcohol had compelled Stavanger to do something he normally wouldn't do in his right mind. Without warning, he pushed his head forward and connected his muzzle with Kim's. It wasn't as graceful as it was portrayed in the movies when he almost missed, but the moment wasn't lost because of this.

He knew that it had been the right move, when she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her and pressing her own muzzle deeper into his. This action of hers had him thrown off balance and thus, the two stumbled a little until Kimberly was pushed against the wall. This caused an inner moan that could be felt in her chest, and on the very mouth that was locked with his. She had also accompanied this moan with a slight thrust of her hips against his, giving him the signal that this is not where she had intended to end this.

Stavanger mimicked her movements to increase the pressure and friction between the two, while his paws explored her body: First around her neck, back and waist, before he got more bold and slid his paws down to her hips, thighs, and her behind. Giving each of those favored spots a squeeze had her moving her body in all different directions, trying to force herself against him and his paws.

She started to do the same to him, but she took it one step further by reaching one paw under his shirt and the other into the waistband of his pants. This gave Stavanger a new level of boldness as he ran one paw down her leg and lifted it up to his side. He then ran that same paw back up her now bent leg, but this time under her skirt. His paw getting the resistance of her fur being pushed against the grain, he ruffled her fur up, then smoothed it back down, reaching further and further up each time he did this.

He had reached her abdomen and started to feel around. At the same time, she had forced his shirt up to his chest, prompting him to take it off. Retreating his paw from under her dress, he removed his top portion of clothing and threw it to the side.

Forcing his body back against hers, he could feel her claws combing through the fur of his back Simultaneously, he had his paws back to work exploring her body. This time however, he tugged on the back of her dress, giving her the same notion to remove her clothes as she did to him, which she obliged more than willingly.

She now was nearly completely exposed to him; he could now see new portions of her summer fur coat that were not what arctic foxes were known for. She had patches of tan that ran down the sides of her torso and brown along her back and split apart onto each of her thighs. By this point, he could feel that he was totally restricted by his pants in his groin region. He wasn't the only one to notice it; she had a new focal point of his body when she, too, had discovered a definite presence in his pants.

To even out the amount of clothing each fox had on, she attempted to free his bulge from its restrictive prison, but couldn't get his pants unfastened. Stavanger took over and undid them for her, allowing his pants to fall to the floor. They were now both clad in the least amount of clothing they could have.

They continued to rub up against each other, mixing their scents together, and twisting their cream underfur together. That was until the amount of grinding had Stavanger's final article of clothing sliding down, exposing his masculinity to Kimberly. She didn't shy away from this and decided to take this foreplay to the next level, as she gently grabbed onto his protruding phallus. He took the time to slip his paws between her and her final piece of clothing, to slide it down and off her.

She followed suit and used the other paw that didn't have a grasp on him to remove his underwear. They were now both stark naked, just as their primitive ancestors were before. However, unlike their ancestors, they were a little more civil with what was to come next; that in the form of stavanger picking up the smaller fox and carrying her to the bed.

He set her down and layed on top of her, missionary style, as he continued to kiss and grind on her. They had built up enough to where they felt they wanted to take the next step forward, when the worst cock-blocking knock pounded on the hotel room's door.

Absolutely killing the ambiance, Stavanger released a growling groan, wanted to ignore the knock and hopefully, they would think no one was home, but the knock persisted. Kimberly was laughing in disbelief at the timing of this, while Stavanger jumped down from the bed and dressed himself with what would be deemed the necessary minimum clothing needed to answer a door.

He opened it with a furious growl, asking: "What!?"

With the huge light difference outside the room, Stavanger couldn't see all that well while his eyes adjusted to the light. He could make out that two figures stood in the doorway, an addax and a gemsbok. The former of which made a quick movement towards him, too quick for him to react, before everything was engulfed in black.

Sorry for the huge gap of time between releasing chapters. Also I have to say sorry to Dia. Due to my rush to finally end the chapter, I made more then enough mistakes to make up for any 'improvements' I have made. Also thanking Snowfox/Zlotty for his cameo appearance in the story!


	13. Between A Hog and A Hard Place

A small room was dimly lit, which gave it a cold, stark appearance. No way to orientate oneself, especially with the lack of noise coming from the only door into the room. The prisonlike inclosure ensured that anyone left unattended for too long would surely begin to get stir crazy.

Smell and taste were the only things that were in abundance in this cell of solitude. Though, it wasn't pleasant. In fact, the only reason they had been so plentiful, was because the origin of both were from the blood that had now stained both his mouth and nose.

The night had been long, as it had been planned, but this was not how Stavanger had expected it would go. He wasn't aware that he'd fallen unconscious until this moment. Deprived from the outside world, he had no idea how long he had been here, if it was still night, or if it was already morning.

He attempted to move, only able to do so much as shifting his shoulders around. This was because of the chair he had forgotten he was bound to.

He lifted his weak head, his neck's dull pain becoming more prominent with the use of sore muscles.

He surveyed the room with blurred vision, coming to the conclusion that he was now alone.

A groan escaped his lungs when he tried to stretch his body. It hurt to breath, or do anything, for that fact.

A few minutes went by while he made small nudges to get his stiff body to shift around.

Continuing his movements had awakened a serious headache that didn't help at all. He couldn't recall what specifically could've been the cause, but he knew it wasn't just the previous night's alcohol.

Eventually, he could hear footfalls and voices approach from the other side of the door. Not knowing who they belong to Stavanger couldn't decide if he should call out to the voices for help, or stay quiet in the hopes to not alert what would be his captors.

As he tried to listen to the conversation, he could only pick out a couple of words from someone who sounded rather annoyed.

It sounded as though they had stopped just on the other side of the door. "...can't believe I'm the one who has to resolve this personally."

Hearing this sent a chill down Stavanger's wrecked body, sensing his end was near. His breaths started to become shorter with a quickened pace. He didn't know what to do as the door began to open. There was nothing he could do, but that didn't stop his mind from racing through various outcomes of what could happen in the next few moments.

A well dressed warthog entered the room, filling the room with an oversaturated smell of cologne, worn to mask his inherent stench. "Alright, I am going to be honest with you, and I expect you to do the same for me," he announced.

"My name is Akins Okeke; what is yours?" He had continued while pulling out his cell phone.

The fox was reluctant to answer, remembering the pain that was inflicted upon him throughout the night for supposedly answering incorrectly. "Stavanger," he finally uttered in fear.

The warthog had an unimpressed look on his nodding face. "Hmm… okay, you sure?" he asked, as he raised his phone towards the fox. He looked between the mammal in front of him and his device, which had a picture displayed on it. "My vision isn't as good as yours, so maybe you can tell me." He then turned the phone's screen to Stavanger. "Is this not you?"

Stavanger struggled to look at the bright image, but from what he could see, he could tell it was a picture of Nick. So, just like the two mammals last night, this one must have assumed Stavanger was Nick. As to why it was so important that they had Nick was not apparent to the mistaken fox.

Stavanger nudged his head side to side, signaling a silent no, in fear of what could happen next.

The hog ran the same line of questioning that the other two repeatedly asked last night. "I have records that Nicholas Wilde was in my casino last night, not to mention the room you were in was in his name. I'm sure you know how this looks, right? As far as I know, he doesn't have a twin, and I am told you had no official documentation as proof of who you are. So, please, tell me what I am missing here."

No response came from Stavanger, as he had no idea how to respond to that question. He continued to struggle for an answer while the warthog paced around him. Stavanger paid no attention to him, as more scenarios of possible outcomes played though his mind of what was to come.

That was, until he heard something that he didn't understand, so he looked up to Akins with an inquisitive look.

Assuming the fox haden't heard him, he repeated, "We are friends."

Confused, Stavanger continued to give a blank stare before Akins continued, "That is what I wanted you to say. 'We are friends'."

Yet still not getting a coherent response from the fox, Akins looked back and asked the two at the door. "What'd you do to him?... You-" he trailed off, pointing to his own head, insinuating they messed the fox up mentally.

The addax and gemsbok looked to each other with perplexed expressions and one shrugged their shoulders.

"Really?" Akins rhetorically stated. He huffed while shaking his head before he instructed the other two to undo Stavanger's binds.

While the two larger mammals did as instructed, Akins approached Stavanger and put a hoof on the fox's shoulder. "I'm sorry; this was very unprofessional of us. I really hope there are no hard feelings between you and I."

Stavanger could kind of tell that this was a case of good cop, bad cop. Just without the added legal system to keep him safe, so at this point, he had no idea what to do, as he continued to listen to the hog.

"You see, I am a bit of a fan." Akins then ran his other hoof over his slicked back mane. "I would very much like to meet Mr. Wilde, and his partner, and I know you can be the one to arrange that for me."

Stavanger stayed quiet as opposed to saying what he really wanted to say and endanger his chance of actually getting out of there.

"I'm sure whatever happened in this room before I arrived isn't something you wish to go through again," the hog soothed as he moved his hoof to Stavanger's sore cheek. He then glided it down the vulpine's chin, lifting it up so the fox would look at him. "I promise though; If you don't make this happen for me, you will suffer. This is only the beginning, and not to mention, I'm sure that you wouldn't want that petite foxy lady of yours to get involved either, right?"

Stavanger hadn't even thought about what might've happened to her, but he didn't want to ask and give them the satisfaction of having leverage over him. He again opted to stay silent and listen to the warthog talk.

"I really wouldn't like to do that, but I am a mammal of my word. Are you? Can I trust you to deliver; to give me what I want?" Akins asked, then released Stavanger's jaw.

Just as Akins finished his question, Stavanger's paws were released from their binds. He instinctively rubbed his wrists as he looked back at the hog awaiting his answer. He figured if these guys confused him for Nick, then odds were that they wouldn't be able to find him again once he left the room, but he wasn't about to admit that to them. At the same time, he didn't want to sound too eager to agree to the deal, as they otherwise wouldn't believe him. So, Stavanger said the first thing that came to mind when it comes to deals like this. "What's in it for me?"

Akins gradually laughed more and more at what the fox had just asked, then answered, "There's that conniving, fox-like bravado; so predictable and greedy. Is getting your freedom not enough?"

To add to the ploy, Stavanger attempted to justify himself to make it even more convincing. "Well, like you said, he is a friend."

This had the warthog nodding his head with smug smile, but ultimately, he refused Stavanger's rebuttal. "Freedom is a great gift and it's very generous of me to give you that much, but as an added incentive, there may be a little something extra for you, once I get what I want. So, please, do not keep me waiting, and remember what happened in this room, as it will be a reminder for you to not forget our deal."

Stavanger just gave a quick nod while looking the hog in the eyes.

"Good. Now, these fine gentlemammals will see you out. Also, before your foxy mind starts thinking of the dastardly things that it normally does, reporting this won't help you. I am sure you should know that a mammal such as myself doesn't just fall into a position like mine. I am a very influential mammal, with various insurances to oversee my will."

Before Stavanger got out of his chair, Akins brought up his phone once again and took a picture of Stavanger before nodding to the other larger mammals.

Suddenly,a pistol was produced in front of Stavanger and his body went into fight or flight mode. Especially when his paws were snatched by the wrist as the pistol was brought closer to him.

He tried to struggle, but it was no use, his tattered body was no match for the large gemsbok.

"Fuck, fuck-" Stavanger seethed as he closed his eyes.

He felt the object placed in his paws while a pair of hooves squeezed his paw closed. He opened his eyes to notice the pistol was actually almost sized for him. He just now realized that the pistol would've been too small for the horned mammals to operate efficiently, but none of this made any sense.

Completely puzzled he looked at Akins, while the gun was taken from his grasp. He then flinched in pain as a small tuft of fur was pulled from his neck. "AHH, what the fuck?"

Akins explained, "You think I would have you killed right after I struck a deal with you? No, this is to better incentivise you to stay loyal to me. You cross me, well, if it's out on the streets, you're dead. If you try to go to the cops, we will see what they think about the evidence I have against you in the murder of... whoever." he said while waving a hoof in the air

The warthog then pointed to the door, "Now, please, my time is precious to me."

Stavanger, finally getting the chance to leave, didn't hesitate and slid off the chair, the pains and aches of his body were the only things slowing him down.

The two horned mammals guided Stavanger out of the room as Akins instructed the two guards to give the fox back his belongings that were left in the hotel room. Stavanger wanted to ask about what was in the room or if Kimberly was still in the room, but didn't want to delay him getting out of there any further.

Akins watched the two guards take the limping fox away while he started to type on his phone.

After the message was sent, he let out a sigh, then began to walk down the hallway in a different direction from Stavanger.

Grumbling to himself, he mulled over what he was going to say, after it has been found out that the fox he had was, in fact, not Nicholas Wilde.

Annoyance radiated from his posture as he walked through the corridors of his sub casino lair. The employees who meandered around the building would catch on to the warthog's mood and would thus steer clear of the mammal. Akins was not one you should tempt while he was in the wrong mood.

He arrived at a door to one of the many rooms in the basement-like setting. He tidied up his outfit, brushed it off a little, and slid a hoof over his slicked mane again.

Entering the room, he could see, sat at his large conference table, a peccary dressed in business attire. Once Akins was inside the room, a smile graced the business mammal's face as he patiently waited.

Akins closed the door behind himself with a sigh. He then walked towards his own side of the table as he rambled on. "What a rough day, first off-" he said, continuing to list off complications he had that were normal when running a couple of businesses as fronts.

The peccary pig waited for what he assumed was the end of the hogs ranting, then eagerly asked, "...but there is a silver lining though, right?"

"Silver line?" Akins asked back, this time laying on his accent a little more.

"Oh come on, I know that you know what I mean. Stop playing dumb." The pig had called Akins out on his bluff, knowing the warthog generally did this to dodge the question.

"Calm yourself, Mr. Sandoval. After all, a mammal trying to be a politician, such as yourself, should be right at home with deceit." Akins sat down as he asked, "Do I call you that? Or can I call you 'Ramiro'? I feel like we are on a first name bases, are we not?"

Contemptly, Ramiro simply stated; "Sure, now, back to why I'm here."

"Ah, that, yes, well… it's been delayed," Akins answered, while slicking back his hog mane again.

The peccary pig held a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean? Last night everything was all said and done. You had him."

The warthog laced his hooves digits together when he explained, "It was the wrong one, but he is helping us now,so there is a 'silver line', as you say."

With a sigh, Ramiro asked, "Well, this puts me behind schedule."

Akins gave a very hog-like snort. "You have nothing but time; What do you have to worry about?"

"If you hadn't forgotten our agreement, then you would know. I create political distractions in the form of civil unrest, and you do whatever it is you do, while everyone is distracted. In return, you provide security for me, and once I am influential enough, you and your posse of small businesses support me at the foundation level," Mr Sandoval explained.

All the while, Akins seemed to not be able to get over the fact that the would-be politician called his businesses 'small'. "Small? You think this is small?" he said, raising his voice and throwing his arms into the air in the process. "This is the most well known establishment in all of Zootopia! How is this 'small'!? Sure, some of the outer resources I have collected are small, but I will make them big, just as I did with this!"

Not wanting to get off-topic with the warthog's ego, Ramiro changed the subject. "So, if it wasn't Officer Wilde you had, then who was it, and how did you get him to help you?"

Not quite ready to stop boasting about himself, Akins' reply was simple and vague. "I have my ways."

After a few moments of staring across the table at a slight scowl, Akins went into more detail. "So, this fox is a friend of Officer Wilde, he knows where to find him, and with foxes being the opportunistic fiends they are, I am sure he will come through."

Ramiro wanted to be comforted by the stereotype of foxes doing anything to get the upper-paw, but this was a little far-fetchhed. So, he pointed out how this alone wasn't enough insurance, to which the warthog replied, "When one is blackmailed with murder, it's like writing a blank check. Trust me, Mr. Sandoval, I know what I'm doing."

Hearing Akins refer to him formally by his last name was comforting, making it clear that the warthog wasn't messing around anymore and was talking business. Trusting that the crime boss had things under control, he stated, "Well, you do you, and I will continue to do what I do.

"Quite," Ramiro responded then looked around the conference room as if looking for anything suspicious for some paranoid reason. "Anything scheduled for the near future I should know about?"

Akins answered his partner. "Just what you already know, but it would be nice if you could get those port authorities out of the way. I already have almost half the shoresmammals in my pocket for pier three."

With mouth agape, Ramiro struggled to process what his partner had just said, so to clarify, he asked, "So… you… you do remember whose area that is, right? How long have you been working on this?"

"A couple weeks," the confident warthog answered.

"Why!? I told you not to! Do you know who you're messing with over there!?" Ramiro exclaimed.

Completely calm, Akins acknowledged, "Yes, the Big's, what's the problem?"

Bewildered by the calm demeanour, Ramiro clarified, "Yes! Mr. Big, you know of him. So why are you doing this!? You are starting a war on two fronts, and that won't bode well for either of us. We'll have to work faster, and harder now. We have to get rid of Wilde immediately."

With a sigh, the warthog shook his head. "Should have told me that before I let that fox go... could have had him do something about it, rather than waiting for him to bring the officer to us."

"I would have, if you would've told me what you had done sooner!" Ramiro said, raising his voice again. "How are you going to do everything, plus shield us from the Big's, with even less time now?"

Keeping his composure, Akins responded, "Do not underestimate me again. Like I said, I know what I am doing. I just need you to help me help you, okay?"

Taking a moment to look over his partner, Ramiro didn't want to display any fear, but he did want to delay his answer as a passive way of showing his displeasure of the undisclosed actions against the neighboring crime syndicate. "Okay, just… Please, can you and your... 'Luminous Crowns' promise your adherents to our agreement? I'm not threatening you, but I would like to enforce the fact that I am still a major player in this little game of ours. I don't want any discrepancy to come between us."

Akins paused, staring at the pig across from him, letting out a typical hog snort. He ran a hoof over his mane again and leaned forward as he spoke. "Okay, and please, would you not double cross me once you are where you need to be. I'm not threatening you, but I wouldn't like to do to you, what we did to that little hyena. I don't want any discrepancies to come between us."

Hearing similar phrases spoken back to him, felt a little condescending, but Ramiro wasn't going to put forth the effort to point that out. Rather, he silently nodded his head before he said, "okay."

Leaning back in a more relaxed posture again, Akins promised that he would expedite his efforts to take out both Officer Wilde and Officer Hopps.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city in Savanna Central, Nick had just woken up. Gracing the world with a yawn, he went to stretch his limbs, but held back the urge when he felt on object next to him. That and the feeling that he wasn't in his own bed.

After his eyes had adjusted, he looked around to see that he was on the couch of his apartment's living room. He looked down at the object next to him and noticed that it was Judy. Though he didn't disapprove of this, he was worried as to how they got into such a compromising position. But when his eyes had completely adjusted, he could see both were still fully clothed, so his concern subsided.

Not to disturb the sleeping bunny, Nick pondered on how they got to their current resting place. He couldn't recall specific details, but he could remember the night out, and most of the journey back. It was remembering what happened when they got home that was escaping him. He could remember pulling out his bourbon; evidence of that was still on the table in front of him.

Further inspecting his bottle, he noticed the top had not been placed back on it. He struggled to reach it, but dared not to try in excess, as to not disturb the bun. Rather annoyed that he was helpless to reach it from his fuzzy imprisonment, he just opted to lay there and contemplate the happenings of last night, and try to piece together the rest of the story.

He sat there for a while, staring a hole into the ceiling, while the small sleeping form next to him would occasionally draw his attention with the little movements and noises that she made in her sleep.

He couldn't help but have the word 'cute' run through his mind a couple times. Other times, 'adorable', and then, 'beautiful'. Did he really find her _that_ attractive? Sure, she was desirable bunny, and not just in terms of good looks either, but did he really find her attractive?

He hadn't realized that most of his focus was on her now, and that he had even started to lightly pet her. It was the vibrating phone in his pocket that finally diverted his attention.

Retrieving the cellular device that he didn't know was still in his pants, he checked the screen for the notification that disturbed him in his time of peace.

Upon glancing over it, he noted that the displayed time was 9:42am. Then came the notification, which was a text message from Stavanger.

Before opening it, Nick used the opportunity to snag a quick picture of Judy snuggled up to him. He would never admit that he honestly wanted the picture. Rather, he'd say and use it as a way of embarrassing her.

Holding the phone above the both of them, he took the photo. But to his own surprise, once he reviewed his photographic work, he heard an audible "delete it" emanate from next to him.

"Wha-" he whispered in confusion.

"You heard me," was said by what he had expected to be a sleeping bunny.

Quite amused with what he just got caught doing, he asked, "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough," Judy responded.

"Then why didn't you say something?" Nick asked.

"Maybe I didn't want to move," she answered, then added, "did you delete it?"

Nick looked back to his phone, then swiped to the side, closing the phones camera mode. He then opened up his messages as he said, "Yep, I did just now."

Judy pulled him closer and buried her muzzle in his shirt using it to muffle her mumbled words.

Not understanding what she said, Nick half laughed and asked what she had said.

Removing herself from his shirt, she moaned, "You're such a liar!"

Nick chuckled as he said, "You know me too well."

With a pouty tone, Judy responded, "I know right? You darn foxes, so predictable."

Nick barbed back by reminding Judy of what he now had in his possession. "Ha! Right, we'll do whatever it takes for a little blackmail."

"Blackmailing a fellow officer: that's low, even for you," she dared.

With his usual sly grin, he read out Stavanger's message out loud. "Hope you had a good night last night, can we talk here soon?" He then glanced down at the bunny and narrated his thoughts for her to hear. "Oh yes, yes we can, and I have just the picture to talk about."

Judy tightened her grip on him as she playfully wined, "Niiiick, nooooo, please."

Nick typed away on his phone, sending a reply to Stavanger while he spoke to Judy, "Wow, is that you begging? I never heard that before; why the sudden change in demeanor?"

The bunny rubbed her muzzle back and forth against Nick as a way of ridding her face of an itch. "Because this headache is killing me, so I have no choice but to be merciful, for now."

"Awwww, poor bun bun have a hangover? Well then, today is going to be fun," Nick teased.

Hiding her big smile, she couldn't hide her amusement in her voice as she moaned, "I hate you."

"Oh there, there, Carrots, you bunnies, so emotional," Nick soothed,as he finished and sent the text to Stavanger.

The recipient of the message had gotten it moments later. He was sat on the train, looking rather worse for wear, especially now that he was exposed to the sunlight.

The disheveled fox read the text he had received.

[My night was great, we should do it again sometime. Hope you enjoyed the room. Hope you didn't annoy your vixen friend, she is a lovely lady. I hope she isn't the reason you want to talk.]

Silently, the fox typed away on his phone in his own little corner of the train.

[I had a good time, she isn't what I want to talk about, but I would like to talk in person, and soon. So maybe another night out?]

He had sent the message, but didn't look away from his phone. He just watched every little status update from when the message was sent, received, viewed, and even when Nick started typing back.

The text had appeared under Stavanger's last message.

[Sure, is everything alright? I will talk to Carrots about her plans and when we can go out. We have an admin day tomorrow, so after that we should be good for a meet up.]

Stavanger continued to ignore the world around him as he typed away on his phone before hitting "send".

[Ok, sounds good. See you soon.]

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I would like to apologise for how long it took for me to finally get this one out. That was a ridiculously long time. So props to one of my fans, who goes by the name of JuJoHunter for really giving me the motivation to get back, and continue writing this.  
I would like to especially thank Dia for not only correcting this, but dealing with my emotional butt while I go through this transition in life. (transition should almost be over and I should be starting school here soon.)


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